100,000 Workers To Be Hired This Year By Target During The Holidays

Target has announced that during this year’s holiday shopping season it will hire seasonal workers numbering around 100,000. This is an increase of 40% compared to the number of seasonal workers the retailer hired in 2016. Last year Target hired 70,000 seasonal workers. Nationwide hiring events for the holiday season positions will be held from October 13 to October 15.

“Target has made significant investments in our business throughout 2017, and our commitment to hire 100,000 team members for the holidays will make shopping at Target even easier and more fun…” said the chief store officer of Target, Janna Potts, in a statement.

Benefits and opportunities

The seasonal workers will not only be provided with opportunities to develop skills but will be eligible for various benefits. These benefits include a discount of 10% on purchases they make at Target as well as a discount of 20% on athletic apparel and certain groceries.

Due to an anticipation of increased online orders this year, the big-box retailer is also planning to hire an extra 4,500 workers in its distribution centers. Online orders at Target have increased exponentially since the retailer revamped its e-commerce operations. In the second quarter results released last month Target indicated that its online sales had grown by 32%.

Earlier in the year Target had disclosed that it was allocating $7 billion to capital investments which will be made in the next couple of years. These capital investments will include an expansion of the retailer’s e-commerce operations, opening small outlets in urban areas and remodeling existing stores.

Amazon threat

Target and other retailers are making efforts to fight off the threat posed by Amazon especially following its acquisition of Whole Foods Market which now gives the largest online retailer in the United States more places from which to make deliveries to customers. Amazon’s acquisition of the grocer also heightened the price competition in the essentials category and Target responded by cutting prices on paper towels, cereal and other items last week.

The hiring plans of a retailer is an indication of how it expects its business to perform during the holiday shopping season. Per the National Retail Federation, the biggest retail trade group in the United States, about a fifth of all the annual sales in the retail sector are made during the holiday festivities. While holiday forecasts for this year have not been released by the National Retail Federation, retail consulting firm Kantar Retail expects sales to increase by 3.7% between October and December this year.