Need For Tech Workers Helps Bump Holiday Hiring Numbers
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Believe it or not, Christmas is seven weeks away. That means a lot of businesses are busy hiring for the holidays.
A new survey from the job website CareerBuilder shows 33 percent of companies plan to hire seasonal help this year -- up from 26 percent in 2014.
"The current estimate is now about 755,000 temporary jobs during the holiday season," University of St. Thomas marketing Professor Dave Brennan said.
Companies like Target, Macy's and Toys"R"Us are hiring the most seasonal employees, according to the survey. The company with the most significant hiring jump is Amazon, with 100,000 employees being added to the holiday workforce.
Business experts say the added jobs are also due to a need for more tech workers to handle an increase in online shopping. They predict online shopping to go up 15 percent this holiday season.
As for how many of the seasonal jobs will become permanent? CareerBuilder reports 47 percent of employers plan to make some seasonal staffers permanent.
The vast majority of the seasonal jobs are in customer service.