Holiday Job Hunt Faces Historic Challenges Amid Economic Uncertainty

Wed Nov 26 2025 23:24:22 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

As Nicholas Strahl and many others struggle to find seasonal employment this year, a deepening economic landscape reveals the lowest levels of holiday hiring since the 2008 recession. Experts indicate increased competition for fewer openings and the impact of rising inflation.

In a year marked by economic strain, seasonal job seeker Nicholas Strahl faces unprecedented challenges in securing a holiday position, with retailers expected to hire significantly fewer workers than previous years. Economic factors including tariffs and inflation are exacerbating the job market freeze, with many hopeful applicants experiencing frustration and disappointment in their searches.

Nicholas Strahl has always been able to find extra work around the holidays. But this year has been the exception.

Mr. Strahl, 41, works as a part-time retail sales associate at an office supplies store just outside Indianapolis, Indiana. While the pay is 'okay', he said it 'never hurts to have a little bit more'.

Finding seasonal holiday employment for extra cash to pay his bills and buy holiday gifts for friends and family has been a challenge. He started his search in early October and applied to CVS, Best Buy, and a slew of other retailers - to no avail.

'I've never seen the job market like this - it's pretty crazy,' he said.

'It doesn't really leave a lot of power for people who just want to get a job, or have a supplement in income.'

Seasonal hiring is poised to drop to its lowest level since the aftermath of the 2008 recession, according to the National Retail Federation. The pullback, a sign of caution among US businesses in the face of tariffs and consumer angst, comes as more people are looking for work in the cooling job market.

The industry group expects retailers to hire between 265,000 and 365,000 seasonal workers, down from 442,000 last year.

The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which also predicted the weakest holiday season for retail hiring in more than 15 years, said tariffs, inflation, and reliance on automation are dampening demand for seasonal hires.

If Mr. Strahl can't land a holiday job, he plans to cut down on holiday gifts and hold off on some car repairs. He will wait to replace his old laptop.

'At this point,' he said, 'I'm willing to take anything I can get.'

Data from Indeed shows that while postings for seasonal work have largely held steady compared to last year, more people are seeking seasonal jobs.

And in retail, traditionally one of the biggest hirers for the holidays, there are fewer opportunities.

The labour market is 'frozen with frostbite', said Allison Shrivastava, an economist with the Indeed Hiring Lab. The fact that seasonal job postings have held steady from last year is reflective of the labour market's paralysis, she said.

'You have a much bigger labour pool competing for a smaller number of jobs,' she added.

Employers added 119,000 jobs in September, more than double what many analysts had expected, but the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% to 4.4%.

Data from Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence firm, shows job openings in the retail sector in October were down 22% from last year. The drop signals less demand among retailers for holiday workers.

'We're just not seeing the usual pick-up in holiday hiring,' said Lisa Simon, Revelio's chief economist.

Several leading retailers, including Target and Walmart, have refrained from saying how many additional workers they will bring onto their payrolls for the holidays. Walmart may hire on a store-by-store basis, but extra hours during the holidays will mostly be given to current employees, a company spokesperson said.

In contrast, Amazon says it will hire the same number of people in its fulfilment and transportation network as it has over the past two years.

'The cautious pace of announcements so far suggests that companies are not betting on a big seasonal surge,' Andy Challenger, senior vice president of sales at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement.

This year, pressure from tariff costs and economic policy has compounded the struggles retailers face during the holiday rush, leading to a more conservative approach to hiring, forcing many into a tight spot as the holidays approach.