At least the holidays are hiring.
Temporary jobs tied to the shopping season could be the consolation prize to South Florida’s recent stretch of lackluster hiring reports. Retailers expect to hire about 600,000 seasonal workers nationwide to keep up with demand during the Christmas rush, and the temp jobs can be a trial run for landing a permanent position.
“If you do a great job, we will reward you,’’ said Tyre Sperling, a spokesman for UPS, which plans to hire about 900 temporary workers this year in the South Florida area, with most jobs starting at about $8.50 an hour.
The UPS target of 900 local holiday workers is only about 20 more workers than it hired last year, reflecting a general trend of flat seasonal hiring in 2012.
The National Retail Federation expects stores and online merchandisers to bring on between 585,000 and 625,000 temporary workers nationwide this shopping season, roughly the same as the 607,500 hired last year. In South Florida, Macy’s and sister store Bloomingdale’s plans to hire 3,600 seasonal workers, and its national goal of 80,000 workers is up slightly from last year’s tally of 78,000 holiday hires.
One reason that retailers aren’t going all-out on seasonal workers is that they have been on a hiring streak since 2010. Retail payrolls in Broward and Miami-Dade grew 7 percent in the last two years compared to 3 percent for hiring overall. And though the 2012 seasonal hiring numbers are comparable to last year, they still amount to a post-recession high as consumers return to their free-spending ways.
Landing a holiday job at UPS or with any other employer is no guarantee for a permanent position, and companies expect to keep only a small fraction of their temporary workers this winter. Target, the nation’s third-largest retailer, recently said only 30 percent of 2011’s holiday hires became full-time employees.
But managers and others noted that they are reluctant to let outstanding temporary workers go once their assignment ends, particularly at the entry-level wages that typically come with holiday work. Should holiday sales come in strong and retailers start to feel confident about 2013, stores will be more eager to hold onto their staff once the “return” season ends in January.
“This is a good time to get your foot in the door,’’ said Ellen Davis, a senior vice president of the National Retail Federation. When searching for new employees, “the first place where many retailers look is who worked for them during the holidays and did a great job.”
Adrian Rodriguez tried for a month to land a job at JC Penney, but he didn’t hear back until the holidays arrived. “I’m a student. I needed a job,’’ he said. The Miami Dade College student spent a recent morning getting a tutorial on the department store’s watch department, one of thousands of workers cramming in as much Retail 101 before Friday and the official launch of the holiday shopping season.
While retailers wanted as many jobs filled as possible before “Black Friday,’’ the holiday hiring rush continues. Many of the back-end jobs, such as warehouse workers and package handlers, will see their rush periods in the days before Christmas. To land a seasonal job, recruiters, retail experts and others offered this advice:
Holiday hiring peps up a sluggish job market
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