Walmart announced that the company has enough staff for the holiday season, reported Reuters.
"We're staffed and ready to serve the customers this holiday season," Maren Dollwet Wagonner, senior vice president of people, said in a LinkedIn post. "We've been hiring throughout the year to be sure we are ready to serve customers however they want to shop."
A spokesperson stated that stores needing the extra help will offer workers additional hours and hire more as necessary, said Reuters.
Holiday sales growth is expected to slow this year and seasonal hiring is likely to follow suit, according to a September analysis by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Challenger predicts that retailers will only add 410,000 seasonal positions, the lowest number of jobs added since 2008.
Last year, Walmart announced plans to hire 40,000 workers for the holiday season, reported Reuters. This year, the LinkedIn post did not give a hiring target. Additionally, according to Reuters, several other U.S. retailers, including Macy’s, have issued muted hiring plans for the season. Amazon is the exception, with plans to hire 250,000 for the holidays.
Aside from decreasing sales, rising labor costs are also a factor in the hiring process.
"There is a greater sense from retailers that they are going to have increasingly higher costs of labor that they cannot pass down to consumers who are feeling the pinch of rising interest rates," said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.