Seasonal Hiring Gets Started for the 2020 Holiday Season

• Author: Jeffrey Simmons
• Posted: 2024-04-30

On Thursday, October 1, another 887,000 Americans filed for unemployment. Just a day later, on October 2, employers started announcing their seasonal hiring plans to fill roles during what is usually the busiest time of the year for retail, logistics, warehousing, shipping and delivery services. A wide variety of employers have made announcements in the past 24 hours about how many people they will hire for the upcoming holiday season and which jobs they are looking to fill.

United States Postal Service Jobs

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is hiring all over the country. It is looking for more letter carriers, sorters and truck drivers to deliver the billions of letters and parcels that will be mailed for the holiday season. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the USPS expects people to do a lot more online shopping than they otherwise would have without the pandemic. Even before the pandemic, people were increasingly turning to online shopping due to its convenience and affordability. The USPS is hiring 2,200 people in Utah, more than 1,000 in metro Detroit and tens of thousands of others across the United States.

The Fresh Market

The Fresh Market is a grocery retailer serving the Chicago area. It plans to hire 1,200 seasonal employees to fill roles. The people hired will fulfill online orders for curbside pickup and delivery. They will also be stocking shelves and working the cash registers. Grocers expect that with the COVID-19 pandemic, more people will be buying food to cook at home for the holidays rather than going out to eat or attending family gatherings at banquet halls.

GAP Hires Warehouse and Call Center Workers

Clothing retailer GAP is hiring several thousand workers to staff its warehouses and call centers. The retailer expects fewer visits to its brick-and-mortar locations, many of which are in malls that are seeing large decreases in foot traffic. People feel that it is safer to do their clothing shopping online. GAP allows people to make returns to its brick-and-mortar stores if the clothing does not fit or they do not like it.

Target to Hire 130,000 Holiday Workers

Target announced that it will hire about 130,000 workers for the upcoming holiday season. Most of those roles will be for online order fulfillment. Target offers online shopping that ships to the customer's home. Customers can also choose to pick up their online order at the store. Each location has special parking areas where customers can park, alert the store of their arrival and wait for an employee to bring their order and load it into their trunk.

1-800-Flowers Hiring 1,000 Work-from-home Employees

Flowers are a classic gift for the holiday season. The national florist chain 1-800-Flowers is hiring 1,000 people to work from home. These people will take online orders for flower deliveries. 1-800-Flowers offers cemetery arrangements, centerpieces, bouquets, corsages, gift baskets and more. It's also hiring more delivery drivers to take orders to customers' homes and to hospitals, nursing homes and other locations.

UPS Is Looking for Seasonal Workers

UPS also announced that it is looking for seasonal workers to handle the sorting, loading, distribution and delivery of parcels during the holiday season. The company plans to hire nearly 100,000 temporary workers across the United States. Some of those temporary employees may be given the opportunity for full-time permanent jobs after the holiday season is over. People with a CDL will have he best chance of getting hired by UPS.

FedEx Is Hiring 100,000 Workers Nationwide

Much like the USPS and UPS, FedEx is also looking for about 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers for the holiday season. Many businesses turn to FedEx for fast overnight shipping. People who make a last minute gift order may rely on these overnight and same-day delivery services in order to get their gifts to the recipients on time.

Best Buy Is Hiring

Best Buy is looking for seasonal workers to staff its brick-and-mortar stores during the holiday season. The electronics retailer is hosting job fairs at locations throughout the United States. There will also be some jobs available at its fulfillment centers. Some of the jobs include sales staff, stocking, order fulfillment and customer service and call center staffing.

Amazon Is Looking for Workers

Amazon is looking for as many as 300,000 warehouse and delivery workers for the holiday season. Most of the jobs are at fulfillment centers. There are part-time and full-time temporary jobs available.