Kohl’s has recently announced their plans to employ over 69,000 new temporary workers in their United States retail stores. With low retail sales this year, Kohl’s seems determined to hire as many seasonal workers as they did last year.
Surprisingly Kohl’s is not the only retailer to hire a high amount of seasonal workers, Target Corp. has also announced their plans to hire over 70,000 in-store workers for their holiday season. For the past three years, Target has hired the same amount of workers for their holiday season.
Department stores like Kohl’s and Macy’s Inc. have been facing low sale numbers over the past few quarters, which the stores are blaming online retail sites like Amazon for their low sales. The department representatives have also claimed their customers lower demand for new clothes and unseasonable weather have also impacted their sale numbers.
An analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., Mark Altschwager, has commented that Kohl’s decision to surprisingly hire the same number of workers as last year was expected. He continued to state that although Kohl’s had a sluggish sale season, the retail company is keeping a close watch on their inventory and expenses in order to hire more workers during their busiest shopping season. The analyst lastly stated that none of these retailers want a repeat of last year’s employee cuts.
Kohl’s has over 1,100 stores in 49 states and has over 32, 000 full-time employees and 108,000-part-time workers as of this January. The new seasonal workers will be added to the company’s e-commerce fulfillment centers, credit card operations, distribution centers, and stores.
Macy’s, who have had their lowest quarterly sales numbers this year, haven’t announced their projected amount of new seasonal hires this coming holiday season.
According to market data, consumers are spending more money traveling and home improvement. Millennials consumers are buying clothes, but they are favoring discount stores like H&M, T.J. Max, and other online fashion retail sites.
Macy’s CFO Karen Hoguet has commented about the company’s low sales, admitting that the retail store is experiencing a rough patch. Although Hoguet commented that Macys need to refigure what the consumer needs and wants this coming holiday season to make higher sales goals.
