U.S. retailers' holiday hiring will be its lowest since 2001, when the Sept. 11 terror-attack aftermath muted sales, an outplacement firm said Monday.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. did not offer an employee-count or percentage drop from 2006's 721,200 worker increase, up 1.4 percent from 2005's 711,400.

But it said it expected retailers "to add the bare minimum of extra staffing for the 2007 holiday-selling season as a slumping housing market, costly toy recalls and the increased probability of recession threaten to dampen sales."

"While we are not even close to the level of economic weakness experienced after Sept. 11, the sudden surge in job cuts resulting from the housing slump is undoubtedly creating concern among retailers," Chief Executive Officer John Challenger said.

"The big fear" among retailers is that even consumers who have not been directly hurt by the housing slump "could decide to cut back on spending as confidence over the economy’s overall strength slips," he said.

As a result, stores that typically hire extra workers by early October "may wait until the end of the month or early November in order to see how sales are going," Challenger forecast. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 18 September 2007   

Source:

Archive