With the holiday season nearing, Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) announced on Monday it is getting ready, by hiring 80,000 seasonal workers.
The company said this represents a 2.5% rise from 2011, when it added 78,000 workers.
Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) plans to utilize the extra staff to work on its sales floors, store operations, call centers, and shipping centers for online orders, reported CNN.
The company also owns Bloomingdale stores, and the temporary staff–the majority of which are part-time–will also help out at their stores.
The new hires come along with Macy’s 175,000-strong year-round staff.
Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) announcement comes as other retailers have been ramping up their holiday hiring, in anticipation of a busy holiday shopping season.
On Sept. 24, Toys R Us said it would hire 45,000 seasonal workers–a 5,000-worker rise (13%), compared to 2011. The company also announced plans earlier this month to launch a free layaway program through Oct. 31, followed by a $5 fee after that date. It will also add a hot toy reservation plan.
Also last month, Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) said it planned to hire 52,700 seasonal workers; this is a 10% rise from last year. The retailer also plans to add 5,700 people for opportunities at is distribution centers, and 30 workers for part-time positions in its credit operations business.
All of the news comes as retailers are beginning to prepare for Black Friday.
On Friday, the first ad for the big shopping day slipped out, and the affected company was Sprint Nextel Corporation(NYSE:S).
It appears that the company will offer the Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) Galaxy SIII smartphone for $49.99 on the Friday after Thanksgiving, reported Engadget.
Deal News also jumped on the spoiler alert, and wrote last week that it believes numerous carriers, retailers, and manufacturers will also offer other low prices for smartphones for Black Friday Shopping.
According to Deal News Lindsay Sakraida:
“If this is indeed what Sprint is planning to offer Black Friday shoppers, retailers like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will likely undercut this promotion. In fact, last year Amazon offered a massive “Penny Pincher Sale” right before Black Friday wherein numerous recently-released smartphones were discounted to just a penny — including the Motorola DROID RAZR, which had debuted in early November 2011. Given that the Samsung Galaxy S III was released in June this year, and will be six months old come late November, we wouldn’t be surprised to find a better deal on the S III than this Sprint promo.
On Monday’s news of seasonal hiring, Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE:M) stock is up 2.45% to $38.54.
