{
  "id": 13693236,
  "title": "Retail's holiday hiring push is shaping up to be worse than last year's disappointing run",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/11/retails-holiday-hiring-push-is-shaping-up-to-be-worse-than-last-years",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-11T09:49:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Insider",
    "slug": "business-insider",
    "url": "https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-holiday-hiring-worse-than-last-year-2026-10"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The retail industry's seasonal hiring efforts are projected to be the weakest in years, reflecting a shift towards earlier hiring and reduced reliance on seasonal workers, according to a report by career transition firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. This year's retail hiring push is on track to consist of around 450,000 seasonal jobs, the lowest gain in nearly two decades, compared to last year's tally of 461,000. Retailers like Spirit Halloween and craft shop Michaels have led the hiring charge, with plans to hire 52,000 and 10,000 seasonal workers, respectively. However, major players such as Amazon and Walmart have yet to announce their plans, while Target will rely on its on-demand team of approximately 43,000 workers and leave further hiring decisions to local managers. The trend towards earlier hiring and fewer seasonal jobs could potentially erode a common first step in workers' career ladders, as retail workers make up roughly one in ten US workers, with six in ten having held a retail job at some point in their careers.",
  "summary": "The push to hire retail workers for the holiday shopping season is both starting earlier and ending at a lower total than in recent years.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}