With the final few days of holiday shopping remaining, we wanted to provide one more update on hiring demand in the retail industry. Often, we look at this as a signal of how strong sales are during this peak season. If employers are hiring more staff, we can assume they are looking to fulfill customer demands, whether in-store or online.

Over the past 120 days (since September 2014, when holiday hiring plans can be seen in trend lines) there were more than 493,000 jobs newly posted online by companies in the retail industry. This is a 26% increase when compared to the same time period in 2013. The peak in hiring occurred in October, when there were over 140,000 jobs posted online for retail jobs.

Hiring Demand Trend in the Retail Sector

Source: WANTED Analytics

The most in-demand jobs are mostly customer-facing, such as sales and sales managers, cashiers, and customer services positions. Of the 10 most demanded occupations, only 2 saw declines compared to last year. Merchandise displayers and trimmers and stock clerks (stockroom, warehouse, or storage yards) had fewer jobs this year than last. Displayers saw a 24.9% decline, which may be attributed to increasing online sales and decreasing in-store retailing.

Retail Occupations with Most Hiring Demand – Past 120 Days

Employers with the most job openings since September were:

1. The Dollar General
2. Lowe’s
3. Macy’s
4. Best Buy
5. Sears Holdings Corp
6. Safeway Companies
7. Target Corporation
8. Home Depot
9. Office Depot
10. CVS Corporation