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Seasonal hiring off to a strong start

People check out with their purchases at a Target store in Fairfax, Virginia on August 14, 2009. The U.S. Labor Department announced today that, while consumer prices remained flat in the month of July, retail prices have fallen 2.1 percent over the last 12 months. UPI/Alexis C. Glenn
People check out with their purchases at a Target store in Fairfax, Virginia on August 14, 2009. The U.S. Labor Department announced today that, while consumer prices remained flat in the month of July, retail prices have fallen 2.1 percent over the last 12 months. UPI/Alexis C. Glenn | License Photo

CHICAGO, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. retail hiring for the holiday shopping season is off to its fastest start since 2006, a private research group said Monday.

Retailers added 150,900 jobs in October, "three times greater than October 2009, when just 47,600 retail jobs were added, " Challenger, Grey & Christmas said.

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In the previous year, in 2008, only 38,600 seasonal workers were hired by retailers in October, the lowest number in 22 years.

October, generally, is just the start of a seasonal hiring trend. In 2006, when October seasonal hiring came to 150,600, retailers added 596,200 seasonal jobs by the end of the year.

October's hiring "is a good sign that retailers feel more optimistic this year. Even if November and December hiring remains flat from a year ago, seasonal job growth will top 600,000 for the first time since 2007," Challenger, Gray & Christmas Chief Executive Officer John Challenger predicted.

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