CHICAGO, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A Chicago consulting firm says retailers will hire about 570,000 new employees as the holidays approach, about as many as they did last year this time.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a news release Thursday that November-December is when U.S. retailers add the most seasonal workers as they have a better estimate of how heavy store traffic will be during the holidays.
"So far in 2006, retailers have added an extra 126,100 jobs as of October," the group said. "Challenger expects retailers to add about the same number of workers to their payrolls as they did in 2005, which means that approximately 560,000 to 580,000 jobs could be added in November and December.
"Of the 692,800 retail jobs added in October, November and December last year, 386,400 or 56 percent were added in November. Another 189,400 jobs were added in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."
