Holiday retail workers seek "temporary lifeline" in warehouse jobs, if
they can find one
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[December 14, 2020] By
Victoria Waldersee, Melissa Fares and Nivedita Balu
(Reuters) - This time of year, hundreds of
thousands of seasonal retail workers across North America and Europe
would usually be wrapping gifts, stirring hot chocolates, tidying
Christmas displays or assisting the flurry of last-minute shoppers.
But the balance of available holiday jobs this year has radically
shifted from storefront to warehouse and delivery amid record purchases
online. And with millions of retail workers in the United States and
Europe already laid-off, competition for what remaining jobs are left is
fierce, economists say.
The supply of available holiday jobs in U.S. customer-facing retail fell
by a third to 302,100 this year from around 466,400 jobs last November,
data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics gathered by consultancy
Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed.
Macy's Inc cut seasonal hires to 25,000 this year from 80,000 in 2019.
JC Penney Company Inc, narrowly rescued from bankruptcy in early
November, is hiring just 1,700 people in contrast to 37,000 last year.
For a graphic, click here 'Tis the season: Fewer retail jobs up for
grabs.
Meanwhile, applications for U.S. storefront retail positions have jumped
by around 34% year-on-year, according to November data from jobs site
Glassdoor.
Kayla Frederick, 31, was laid off from her position as leasing assistant
for a tour bus company in Florence, Alabama in April as venues closed
and tours were cancelled because of the pandemic. In November, she
started her first ever seasonal job in a local clothing boutique's
warehouse, pulling online orders, folding inventory and tagging intake
items.
"I never expected to be laid off this long," Frederick said. "I'm
thankful this gave me a job."
In Europe, data from jobs sites like Indeed, Adzuna, Student Jobs and CV
Library paints a similar picture of lower vacancies and rising
applications. The number of available seasonal jobs in the UK was down
by a third year-on-year in November to 13,600, according to Adzuna data.
CV Library reported a 60% drop in the number of customer-facing retail
jobs listed in the UK compared to last year – but clicks per job have
doubled. In Germany and the UK, sales associates at jobs site Student
Jobs reported increased contact from frustrated students not hearing
back from companies inundated in applications.
Data from Indeed in the UK showed a jump of around a third in clicks per
posting on seasonal jobs this year compared to last, according to a
report by Indeed's UK in-house economist Jack Kennedy.
"Jobseekers may be looking at Christmas jobs as a potential temporary
lifeline as job losses mount," Kennedy wrote.
'NEW WORLD OF RETAIL'
UK postal service Royal Mail increased its seasonal hires to 33,000 this
year from 20,000 in 2019, while FedEx Corp in the U.S. hired a quarter
more seasonal workers, taking total hires to 70,000 from 55,000, labour
statistics bureau data showed.
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Worker operates a forklift at Europa Worldwide Group's warehouse in
Dartford, Britain in this undated handout obtained by Reuters
November 28, 2020. Europa Worldwide Group/Handout via REUTERS/File
Photo
"This is likely a window into the new world of retail," Daniel Zhao, senior
economist at Glassdoor, said. "What was done out of necessity during a pandemic
is likely to become an annual online shopping tradition for future holidays."
Glassdoor saw a 120% year-on-year increase in applications for e-commerce roles
like delivery drivers, warehouse workers and order pickers in the United States
and a 45% jump in the UK.
Oscar Jiminez, a twenty-two year old college senior in Southern California, is
among the lucky ones. He landed seasonal employment in October in a gig he
believed would have him working as a customer service agent on an "essential"
retailers' sales floor. But he found himself in a warehouse at the back of the
store instead.
"This wasn't exactly in my job description." Jiminez said. "So far I've been
picking orders, going around the store, finding things people purchased online
and getting them ready for curbside pickup, ship-to-home... I'm constantly on
the move."
Some supermarkets are also pushing up hiring. In the UK, British supermarket
Tesco posted 2,000 more seasonal vacancies than last year. It posted its
seasonal vacancies on student jobs site E4S a month later than usual because of
lockdown uncertainty, but still received over twice as many applications,
according to website data.
German supermarket giant Lidl took on 2,400 apprentices this year in Germany,
40% higher than last year's intake. Lidl and Amazon.com Inc were already
boosting their staff by a significant amount throughout the year to deal with
the surge in demand, reducing the need for temporary seasonal hires, the
companies said.
Amazon hired just 100,000 seasonal staff this year in the United States, half
last year's total of 200,000, because it had already boosted operational hires
by 275,000 throughout the year, it said in September.
Lidl took an opportunistic approach to finding candidates this season in
Germany, where a partial lockdown is likely to be toughened in coming days. "Bar
work is so yesterday," read a November 30 recruitment ad. "Look forward to a
secure job for €12.50 an hour - switch industries and get into retail."
Lidl pulled the ad within a day after backlash from the gastronomy sector on
social media, it told Reuters, apologizing for the distress the message caused.
It declined to say how many new positions it had on offer.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee in Lisbon, Melissa Fares in New York, Nivedita
Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Vanessa O'Connell and Edward Tobin)
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