Sluggish retail market sees US logistics companies pull the reins on holiday hiring: Warehouses, fulfillment specialists, and other logistics companies in the US are keeping their seasonal hiring flat this year compared to the last, the Wall Street Journal reported. Companies are reluctant to ramp up their hiring in the face of tepid growth in consumer demand, the WSJ wrote. Among the big logistics players keeping hiring flat are United Parcel Service, which will hire 100k additional workers for the holiday season — about the same as last year — and retail chain Target, which is also planning to bring aboard 100k workers over the holidays, in line with last year’s figures. Meanwhile, the US Postal Service has said that it will only hire an additional 10k, about a third of last year’s new hires, the WSJ wrote.

Amazon is bucking the trend: The e-commerce giant is a big exception, with plans to hire 250k additional workers, significantly more than the 150k holiday season hires in each of the past two years, the WSJ wrote. The company’s ambitious recruitment indicates a stronger-than-usual confidence in consumer demand, as well as designs to control a larger segment of the holiday market, the WSJ explained.

Holiday wages are also down from the pandemic period: Skyrocketing demand for shipments during the pandemic saw companies scrambling for seasonal hires, with many upping wages, distributing bonuses, and hiring earlier in the season. Seasonal wages this year are unlikely to get much of a boost, however, the WSJ cites Brian Devine, CEO of warehouse staffing agency Ohio-based warehouse staffing agency Ignite Industrial Professionals. Some warehouses are offering USD 1 or 1.5 an hour as extras for seasonal employees, down from the USD 3 to 4 an hour additional payments seen during the pandemic, Devine said.

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