Holiday job outlook not so ho-ho-ho in the Valley

It's the season for fewer holiday jobs and increased competition for every employment opportunity however large or small.

SnagAJob.com's new survey of 1,000 U.S. managers responsible for hiring hourly workers reveals each manager will hire about 33 percent fewer seasonal workers than they did during last year's holiday period. This includes the 57 percent of managers who say they don't plan to hire anyone this year, up 8 percent from 2007.

"The economy is having an impact on how employers are viewing the upcoming holiday hiring season," said Shawn Boyer, Snag-AJob.com CEO. "They're not sure what the traffic is going to look like within their stores and what the sales are going to look like, so thus they're taking a cautious approach to taking additional people onto their payrolls and thus increasing their expenses."

Managers who plan to hire at least one hourly holiday worker say they are looking to bring on nine seasonal workers on average, down 20 percent from last year.

In addition, four in 10 (39 percent) of hiring managers expect the number of applicants to rise this year over last, with about one-half (52 percent) expecting the number to stay the same. Only 9 percent expect fewer applicants.

"Almost 30 percent said they have no money to hire any additional and seasonal workers," Boyer said. "You couple that with the fact that on the job-seeker side you have the unemployment rate rising and you have more people working part-time positions who used to be working at full-time positions ... and that means there is a heck of a lot more competition for these holiday jobs than what there was a year ago."

Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe won't be hiring extra holiday help because sales have slowed, said general manager Cindy Dach.

"Sales are already lower than where they were last year," she said. "I want to make sure that we don't have to let anyone go. I want to make sure that everybody here gets the hours they need to live and pay their bills. We'll probably ask everyone to work a little harder in order to maintain that everybody gets what they need."

People are spending less, while more people are trading in books for cash, Dach said.

"Most people claim gas is what they want the cash for," she said.

Not all employers plan to cut back. Best Buy, for instance, isn't expecting any reduction in holiday hiring because there's been no drop in electronics sales and none is anticipated this holiday season, said Johnny Cruz, Arizona spokesman.

"We anticipate to be right on track like we were last year with our hiring needs to accommodate the customers who are going to be coming in," he said. "We really don't anticipate there being any decline in traffic based off of just the trend of consumer electronics maintaining a steady course."

October is when most employers who are hiring seasonal employees start the hiring process, so the time to get out there is now, Boyer said.

"The first thing you have to do is be willing to work a flexible schedule because almost all of these more holiday-oriented positions are going to require you work nights and weekends at least some of the time," Boyer said.

It is anticipated that 43 percent of seasonal workers will work full-time hours, with the rest working an average of 20 hours a week. The average pay for a seasonal employee is expected to be $10 an hour, he said. And for those who are interested in turning a seasonal job into something more permanent, the opportunity may be there, Boyer said.