Walmart hiring fewer staff for holiday season

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Sep 22, 2022

For the holiday season, Walmart is set to welcome approximately 40,000 additional associates in a variety of seasonal and full-time roles across its business.

In particular, it will hire seasonal store associates, full-time, permanent truck drivers, as well as 'customer care' associates. 

“As we prepare to serve customers this season, we’ll begin, as usual, by offering additional hours to current associates who want them,” Walmart said in a statement. “After that, we’ll offer the opportunity for those who want to earn extra money working on a temporary basis.” 

The hiring spree is far less than reported last year. For the 2021 holiday season, Walmart said it was looking for around 150,000 permanent employees to work over the holidays and beyond.

The move is in line with a recent Deloitte report that reveals U.S. holiday retail sales are likely to increase this holiday season, but at a lower growth rate compared to 2021. The report forecasted holiday sales up between 4 and 6 percent, totalling $1.45 to $1.47 trillion during the November to January timeframe. That’s compared to 2021, where holiday sales grew by 15.1 percent in the same period, reaching $1.39 trillion. 

Still, Macy's Inc expects said earlier this month that it was expecting another early start to holiday season shopping this year.