Employers say seasonal hiring on the rise this year
Dominic DeCono
With fall fast approaching, so too does the crazy holiday rush. That means many businesses will be looking to expand their employee rosters soon in order to keep up with the demand. This includes malls, retail stores, fast food, movie theatres and postage distribution.
So how does this year look for seasonal hiring?
Michelle Armstrong, a store manager for McDonald’s, believes the economy looks more hopeful this year than in the past few. “I think the economy has picked up a little bit in this area and with the snowbirds coming back I think businesses are going to start looking to hire again,” she said.
Many businesses become extremely busy during the holidays because of their seasonal appeal and often hire almost as many seasonal workers as they have year around employees.
Some of these businesses in the East Valley include See’s Candies, Spirit Halloween, Victoria’s Secret and Harkins Theatres. For even larger businesses such as Wal-Mart, Macy’s and Dillard’s, they plan to open their doors to nearly 50,000 combined seasonal workers across the nation.
Armstrong says the part time job opportunities also allow for those who do well enough a chance at full time employment.
“All businesses are looking to improve their staff and if someone comes along who just does a knock-out job, they have a high chance of being asked to stay on full-time if they want,” she said.
The primary job responsibilities seasonal workers get are some of the more basic jobs like cash register work, cleaning and stocking.
“Most businesses are looking for people that don’t have to be highly skilled but can do the ground work that takes up the extra time that full time workers just don’t have during the holidays,” she said.
Anais Alvarado, a student at MCC, believes this season looks more optimistic than last year. “I think there will be more of a spike in business this year than last year,” she said. Alvarado also says the election is making people nervous.
“Once the election ends I think people will calm down,” she said.
The unemployment rate, though slowly, has been coming down and confidence has risen in many markets which have led to improved economic conditions.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the national unemployment rate may reach as low 7.4 percent unemployment by the end of 2013, signaling the economy will have fully recovered from the meltdown that happened between 2008 and 2009.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York also believes the unemployment rate will come down regardless if Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is elected President.
“It makes no difference who is elected, it has everything to do with consumer confidence and around here it is starting to come back,” said Armstrong.
