Holiday hiring 2026: retail seasonal staffing trends and strategies

Holiday hiring for the 2026 season describes the wave of seasonal and part-time recruiting retailers, restaurants and warehouses run between late summer and December to cover the surge in shopping and fulfillment demand. This year that wave is smaller and later than normal: retailers are spending more on sales but adding fewer net-new workers, leaning instead on existing staff, part-timers and automation. For operations leaders, the practical question isn't just how many seasonal workers to hire — it's how to fill a shrinking, slower-moving applicant pool before the rush hits.

Retail remains the single biggest driver of seasonal employment, but its share of the seasonal market has slipped to 61% in 2026, down from about two-thirds in 2019, as HR Dive reports. That shift matters because it signals employers are increasingly covering peak demand with part-time and existing staff rather than opening large seasonal cohorts — a trend HR Dive links directly to Indeed posting data. For operations and staffing leaders, this means the competition for the seasonal workers who are being hired is sharper, the candidate pool is smaller and younger, and speed from application to offer now decides who actually shows up on day one, a dynamic WWD/Sourcing Journal describes as a smaller, younger pool raising the stakes for employers.

The headline tension in this season's data is spending versus staffing. NRF expects holiday sales to cross $1 trillion for the first time, growing 4.2% over last year's $972 billion. Yet seasonal headcount isn't following that curve: the same NRF forecast puts 2026 seasonal hiring at 325,000 to 375,000 workers, essentially flat with 2025's roughly 356,000 estimate and well below the 442,000 retailers hired in 2024, as Retail Dive notes.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas is even more cautious, forecasting 450,000 retail jobs added in Q4 2026 — a 2.5% decline from Q4 2025's 461,500, which was itself the smallest Q4 gain since 2008 and 15% below the 543,100 added in Q4 2024. NRF's chief economist describes this as a "low hire, low fire environment," a phrase Retail Dive uses to capture why retailers are growing revenue targets without growing payrolls at the same rate. Challenger also points out that retailers are leaning on automation, existing associates and on-demand labor pools instead of the 900,000-plus seasonal hiring years seen back in 2020 and 2021.

Announcements have also come later and smaller. As of September 2026, Spirit Halloween and Michaels were the only major retailers with public seasonal hiring plans — a combined 62,000 positions, compared with 100,800 announced by the same point in 2025, per Challenger's September report. Spirit Halloween itself is running its largest seasonal push ever, 52,000 associates across a record 1,575 stores, while Michaels is adding more than 10,000 seasonal workers and noted nearly half of last year's seasonal in-store hires converted to permanent roles, both per Challenger. Amazon is the exception to the caution: it announced 300,000 holiday hires for 2026, a 20% jump from 2025 and its first increase in three years, according to HR Brew. By contrast, Dick's Sporting Goods and Michaels expect fewer seasonal hires this year, and Target and Walmart are reportedly assigning more hours to existing staff instead of bringing on large new seasonal cohorts, per the same HR Brew report.

Seasonal roles have broadened well beyond the sales floor. SHRM lists retail sales associates, customer service reps, unloaders, delivery drivers, stockers and warehouse or fulfillment workers among common 2026 seasonal roles, reflecting how much e-commerce logistics now shapes holiday staffing. A breakdown from an Indeed report, cited by Forbes, shows almost 9% of 2026 seasonal postings are in loading and stocking, 8% in sales, 6.4% in customer service, 3.5% in driver jobs and 3.4% in food preparation. Transportation and warehousing hiring is expected to hold roughly steady in 2026 after employers added 266,500 positions in Q4 2025, down 12% from 2024 and the lowest Q4 total since 2018, per Challenger. Retailers planning in-store and distribution roles side by side should treat the two as one staffing problem this year, not two separate hiring plans.

Workers appear motivated to pick up seasonal shifts even as employers pull back on postings. SHRM reports that 16% of job seekers on Indeed already hold at least two jobs, many overlapping with common seasonal occupations, suggesting people are actively seeking supplemental income. Forbes ties this to consumer price inflation running at 3.7% in 2026, which is pushing more workers to search for second or third jobs. At the same time, retail employment overall was essentially flat, with preliminary BLS data showing 15.47 million retail workers in August 2026, up just over 63,000 from a year earlier, per Challenger — a pattern that typically dips in September as students return to school before rebuilding into Q4.

That demand hasn't translated into faster hiring. ICIMS data cited by WWD found frontline job applications running 18% below baseline in September 2026, while retail time-to-fill stayed at 37 days — a slow pace for roles that need to start well before peak week. Pay is also a live question for planning: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median hourly retail wage of $26.38 in September 2026, per a local news report, though that figure blends regular and seasonal staff and should be treated as a reference point rather than a target rate. The same report is a reminder that overtime and wage rules for seasonal employees can vary, so it's worth confirming the specifics with your own counsel — and wage and hour rules vary by state and role, so employers should check overtime and pay requirements with their own counsel before finalizing seasonal pay structures.

Given a smaller, slower-moving applicant pool, the operational lever that matters most in 2026 is speed and simplicity in the apply-to-interview path, not just the size of the hiring budget. A few practical moves:

• Shorten the path from ad to interview. With time-to-fill sitting at 37 days in some reports, every extra step in the application loses candidates to faster-moving competitors. Letting candidates apply by text or WhatsApp with no new app removes a common drop-off point, since WhatsApp recruiting meets candidates on channels they already use.
• Keep managers, not candidates, in control of scheduling. Rather than making candidates hunt for open interview slots, a manager picks the time and the candidate confirms with one tap, which keeps the process moving without adding friction on the candidate side.
• Centralize multi-location pipelines. Retailers running the same seasonal push across dozens of stores benefit from one shared pipeline rather than separate processes per location, a setup covered in more detail in this guide to holiday hiring automation tools.
• Plan for conversion, not just coverage. Michaels converted roughly half of last year's seasonal in-store hires to permanent roles, per Challenger, which suggests treating this season's hires as a pipeline for 2027 staffing, not a one-off sprint.
• Watch announcements, not just plans. Because major chains like Target and Kohl's hadn't disclosed 2026 headcount figures as of September, per Challenger, staffing agencies and multi-location operators should build flexible capacity rather than assuming last year's volumes will repeat.

The practical risk this season isn't a lack of candidate interest — it's that a thinner pool of seasonal workers is spread across fewer postings that move slower than demand requires. Operations leaders who tighten their application-to-interview process now, rather than waiting for December volume to spike, are better positioned to fill roles before the crunch. For restaurant and retail teams managing a compressed seasonal window, this restaurant holiday staffing surge guide and the text-to-apply holiday hiring campaign playbook walk through setup specifics.

TalentAxis is a high-volume hiring platform for hourly teams: one pipeline across every location, manager-picked interview scheduling with a one-tap candidate confirmation, and reminders and follow-ups that go out on their own to keep applicants moving. Candidates apply by text or WhatsApp with no new app, answer screening questions in the chat, and confirm an interview time the manager has already picked. If you're staffing up for the 2026 holiday season, you can try it with a 14-day trial on pricing.

How many seasonal retail workers will be hired for the 2026 holiday season?

NRF expects retailers to hire between 325,000 and 375,000 seasonal workers in 2026, roughly matching last year's estimated 356,000 and well below the 442,000 hired in 2024, according to NRF and Retail Dive.

Why is seasonal hiring flat when holiday sales are growing?

NRF forecasts 4.2% sales growth to $1.013 trillion in November-December 2026, but its chief economist describes the labor market as a 'low hire, low fire environment,' meaning retailers are covering higher sales with existing staff, part-timers and automation rather than large new seasonal cohorts, per Retail Dive and Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

When should I apply for 2026 holiday season jobs?

Apply as early as possible: by late September 2026, only Spirit Halloween and Michaels had announced seasonal plans, a combined 62,000 hires versus 100,800 announced by the same point in 2025, per Challenger, and retail time-to-fill is still running at 37 days according to ICIMS data cited by WWD.

Which retailers are hiring the most seasonal workers in 2026?

Amazon announced 300,000 holiday hires for 2026, a 20% increase from 2025, while Spirit Halloween is running its largest seasonal push ever with 52,000 associates and Michaels is adding more than 10,000 seasonal workers, per HR Brew and Challenger.

What roles are most in demand for 2026 seasonal hiring?

Beyond store sales associates, demand spans loading and stocking, customer service, delivery drivers and warehouse or fulfillment roles, with loading and stocking making up almost 9% of 2026 seasonal postings per an Indeed report cited by Forbes and SHRM.