Holiday Help
FRESNO, Calif. — They’re the elves of the retail world.
Seasonal temporary employees are everywhere helping stores deal with the crush of holiday customers, doing everything from folding sweaters to shipping packages.
Whether it’s the 100 people hired at the Mervyns or the two extra people selling wine glasses and home decor at Tassels in Fresno, temporary workers play a key role in the busiest time of year for retailers.
Nationally, companies added 71,700 jobs in October, the month in which many start hiring, according to Chicago-based consulting company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which also said this year could see the “most anemic holiday hiring since 2001.”
Slower-than-normal spending by shoppers may be the reason why. The National Retail Federation predicts 2007 will be the slowest in five years. The 4 percent rise in retail sales is below the 10-year average.
Despite the national slowdown, retailers still need help.
Retailers hire college students, professionals with 9-to-5 jobs, teachers on break, retirees, people between careers and the occasional worker fleeing the crumbling housing and construction industries.
Fresno Mervyns manager Jennifer Borges estimated that 20 percent of her seasonal workers already have full-time jobs.
Cisco Contreras’ seasonal job at Mervyns is his only paycheck, and he hopes the position will turn permanent. He left his previous job in receiving at Sears to go back to school, but said that didn’t work out. Now he spends 20 busy hours a week at Mervyns: “I’m always moving around. I’m constantly filling in shoes that have just been purchased and folding — a lot of folding — everything, towels, shirts, pants, sweaters.”
Tassels co-owner Suzanne Yengoyan said many of her seasonal workers also have well-paying jobs, but choose to work at the store because of their interest in decorating and design.
“These are women who are professional women and have other jobs and just like the environment and want to do something on the creative side,” she said.
At Pottery Barn in Fresno, Anna Stenger is holding her second job. She is one of about 40 workers hired for the holidays who join the store’s regular staff of 25 to 30 people, said assistant store manager Jennifer Srenaski. Stenger works 25 to 30 hours a week at her regular job as a manager at Lino Bella, a linens shop.
Now she also is working 10 to 15 hours at Pottery Barn, helping customers on the sales floor and running a cash register. She said she does it mostly for the extra money, some of which she’ll spend on Christmas gifts.
“I love Pottery Barn, and I just wanted a chance to check it out and see how it goes,” she said.
The 40 percent employee discount was a lure, too. Stenger joked that she won’t see much of her Pottery Barn paycheck because she’ll spend it in the store.
Fewer seasonal hires is not an indicator of a slowing economy, said Daniel Butler, the retail federation’s vice president of merchandising and retail operations.
“People are hiring less than they hired in 2001, but the big difference is they are hiring on top of a larger staff,” he said. “We don’t see as large a build, but we do see a build.”
Retailers are more carefully managing their current employees, extending and rearranging hours rather than hiring more people, said Butler, who managed department stores for 26 years.
At Mervyns, Borges said her store approached the situation differently this year. Instead of hiring many seasonal employees in anticipation of Black Friday and losing some because they get only limited hours during the lull before Christmas, the store hired workers a few at a time as needed, she said. That has resulted in fewer resignations and is more efficient, she said.
Other companies need extra help this time of year, too, including shipping companies, customer service call centers and food manufacturers.
This year, UPS expects to hire about 60,000 seasonal workers. On its peak day, Wednesday, the company will deliver more than 250 packages every second through its worldwide air-and-ground network.
