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Report: Available holiday retail jobs reach new heights

November 7, 2013

During September and October of 2013, retailers in the United States had more than 379,000 available sales jobs, according to WANTED Analytics, a source of real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace.

As the holiday season kicks off, this is an 11 percent year-over-year increase in demand when compared to the same two-month period in 2012. This marks a new four-year high level of demand for retail sales jobs in the U.S.

The 10 retail industries with the most job openings included department stores (except discount department stores); general merchandise stores; home centers; household appliance stores; and hobby, toy, and game stores. Hiring in all five of these industries increased; however, household appliance stores grew the most, more than doubling their demand.

The metropolitan areas with the most jobs during the past two months were New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Dallas. Although New York had the most available job postings with more than 16,000, hiring demand there declined 7 percent compared to 2012. The number of jobs also fell in Washington, D.C. Dallas experienced the greatest increase of these five cities; retail sales jobs are up 16 percent in Dallas versus last year.

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