A labor market trend appears to be emerging amid the pandemic that as hiring has surged at a handful of e-commerce giants or at companies with significant online operations ahead of the Christmas shopping season, retail businesses overall seem to be bringing on fewer seasonal workers.
“Hiring is shaping up differently from previous years,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist with the Indeed Hiring Lab, a research group at the job posting site Indeed. Seasonal postings are about 11 percent below last year’s figures, she said, citing reasons that include concerns about future sales, reduced capacity because of store closings, and supply chain disruptions.
