For the 2012 holiday shopping season, retailers across the United States brought on extra employees to help with the influx of customers hitting stores and websites. These staff members were hired to answer consumer inquiries, process payments and returns and manage ecommerce platforms for internet-connected shoppers.

The Los Angeles Times reports that research from Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that in October, November and December, retailers brought on approximately 728,000 new employees for the holiday shopping rush. This was the highest seasonal employment level in six years and it represented a 10.3 percent jump in hiring from the same time last year. Hopefully, many of these staff members will be kept on payrolls past the holidays, but that depends on retailers' needs in 2013, the source notes.

This significant boost in hiring could have been one of the contributors to the strong retail sales numbers for the holiday season. CBS News reports that many businesses experienced solid sales gains during the last part of 2012, according to research by Retail Metrics. The study found that for 20 retailers, same-store sales increased by 4.5 percent from the same time last year.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, January 10th, 2013 at 6:51 am .