Target said on Tuesday it would hire nearly 100,000 employees for the holiday season, like past two years, and offer discounts for the competitive shopping period as early as October.
The plan comes against the backdrop of predictions that sales growth during the crucial holiday period in the United States could be just half of what it was last year due to higher prices denting consumer spending and worries of a recession.
A Mastercard report on Tuesday showed U.S. retail sales could rise only by 3.7 percent for the period beginning November through Dec. 24, compared with the 7.6 percent growth seen in 2022.
Last week, a report from career consultancy firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that weaker spending coupled with increased labor costs would result in U.S. retailers hiring the lowest number of seasonal workers this year since 2008.
In 2022, Amazon.com had announced plans to hire 150,000 employees for the holiday season, while retail bellwether Walmart had said it would add 40,000 workers in seasonal and full-time roles.
Macy’s said on Monday it would hire more than 38,000 full and part-time seasonal workers, fewer than the 41,000 workers it had announced to hire in 2022.
Target’s holiday hiring numbers have been the same as “retailers who have been facing tough (inventory theft) shrink issues” have been hiring partly also to keep the situation under control, said Jessica Ramirez, senior analyst at Jane Hali and Associates.
Major retailers, including the big-box retailer, have warned of a hit to profit resulting from inventory theft.
In a bid to draw shoppers, Target said it would start offering items under $25 across categories, including apparel, home goods, and essentials, and host a “Deal of the Day” program from October.
The program is its response to similar shopping events at retail giants such as Amazon, which is kicking off its second Prime Day for the year on Oct. 10–11, and Best Buy, which is having a flash 48-hour sale on those days.
