American businesses should hire about the same number of seasonal workers for the 2016 Christmas-shopping season as they did last year, but a leading analyst expects some companies with a South Jersey presence to add jobs in the coming months.
Target, which has stores in Mays Landing, Millville and Manahawkin, was the earliest major retailer to announce its 2016 hiring plans, saying Monday that it expects to add about 77,500 jobs this year.
The annual projection from Challenger, Gray & Christmas also predicts some major retailers will increase jobs behind the scenes at the same time they’re easing holiday hiring in their stores.
“We continue to move from brick-and-mortar toward click-and-order. But even in the internet era of holiday shopping, that means that brick-and-mortar fulfillment facilities need seasonal workers,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of the company, a hiring consultant for businesses worldwide.
This year’s seasonal-jobs survey notes that companies added more than 200,000 warehousing and shipping workers last November and December, almost five times as many as American businesses did 10 years earlier.