A robust holiday shopping season is expected due to continued increases in both full-time hiring and consumer spending in 2014. Although seasonal hiring has increased every year since the recession took hold in 2008, when only about 325,000 workers were added to temporary payrolls, holiday workers could exceed the 800,000 mark for the first time in 15 years.
At the same time, while some traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, like Target, expect to hire fewer of Santa's helpers this year due to increasing numbers of online purchases, the likes of Amazon, Macy's and Walmart all added significantly to their holiday staffs last year and may do so again this year. But, in a sign of changing times and shopper habits, Santa's surrogate sled, UPS, expects to add 95,000 elves this year, to help deliver all those online orders.