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Seasonal retail hiring shifts to warehouses, report finds

October 30, 2013

Seasonal hiring for shipping departments has surged while physical sales positions in retail stores increased only modestly, according to the 2013 Retail Trade Market Watch for the U.S. released today by Monster Worldwide Inc.  (NYSE: MWW). The data suggests an expectation of a large share of holiday shopping to take place online and off the showroom floor.

Between the months of July and September, online job offerings for mail-order houses (shipping departments) increased 62 percent — nearly triple the 27 percent increase reported by both computer stores and online  conventional retail sales positions within clothing stores, and the 25 percent increase reported by department stores.

Household appliance stores and warehouses recorded the largest expansion in online job offerings.

“Online shopping continues to increase its foothold on holiday gift buying; the fulfillment and shipping departments are feeling the pressure,” said Jeffrey Quinn, vice president of Monster’s Global Insights. “Seasonal demand for retail jobs is up and we’re seeing these jobs shift from traditional in-store sales and customer service representatives to warehouse labor, individuals with technical expertise and over-the-phone customer service positions.”

California, Texas, Florida and New York posted the highest volumes of retail-related job seekers, while the top-five retail locations on Monster were Seattle, New York, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Most popular retail skills on Monster:

  1. Retail sales
  2. Customer service
  3. Retail management
  4. Hiring/staffing
  5. Inventory management