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Retail work hard to find

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By MICHAEL SASSO

msasso@tampatrib.com

Published: November 11, 2009

TAMPA - If you're hoping to land a retail job this holiday season, you should start early. Two companies that study holiday hiring say retailers may be extra cautious in hiring this year.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive staffing company, this week noted that retailers added 63,500 jobs in October nationwide. That's up slightly from October 2008, when retailers added 59,100 jobs, but way down from the historic average of 126,040 jobs, the company said, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics figures.

Retail sales have been improving somewhat lately, so retailers might do the unexpected and go on a hiring spree this month, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said.

"Retailers are taking a wait-and-see approach and could decide to bring in extra workers at the last minute," company CEO John Challenger said.
Retail jobs have been especially competitive recently, according to Kronos Inc., a national work force consulting company. This week, Kronos said that for every 100 applications that retailers got in October, fewer than three people were hired.

Kronos' Retail Labor Index, which measures hiring in the industry, stood at 2.9 jobs added per 100 applications in October. That is up from September, when it was just 2.6 jobs per 100. However, in October 2008 retailers hired about four people for every 100 applications, and in October 2007 they hired about six people per 100, Kronos estimates.

"Early evidence from the winter holiday hiring period indicates that retailers are preparing for another weak sales season and are hiring at accordingly conservative rates," Robert Yerex, chief economist for Kronos, said in a release.

Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.

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