The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Seasonal workers remain a priority even as retail drops
Despite major upheaval in the retail industry, the demand for additional workers over the holiday season is one thing that hasn’t changed.
“There is no question that retail is down from where it was, but it is also very large,” said Patrick Flaherty, an economist with the state Department of Labor.
While the alleged “retail apocalypse” has seen big-box brands such as Toys R Us and Sears falter, Flaherty said he expects the state still will see a spike in hiring, while other sectors also will add to the demand for skilled labors.
The National Retail Federation expects retailers will hire between 585,000 and 650,000 workers nationwide in November and December, up from 582,500 a year ago.
Flaherty said the retail sector in Connecticut would add about 10,000 jobs during the holidays, maintaining its consistency in
“It’s not like retail has disappeared. Retail has started to contract a little bit and have some shift in consumer patterns in retail towards folks buying online and having them deliver it to their house.”
— Patrick Flaherty, an economist with the state Department of Labor
spite of the current state of the industry.
“Our expectations are that we are going to see a bit fewer than in the past but not a whole lot fewer,” he said. “The behavior of the companies that hire up even though it is somewhat a smaller sector — that pattern is still going to exist,” Flaherty said.
Connecticut’s retail industry has lost around 4,000 jobs in recent years, but that is a small dent in the remaining 179,000 positions statewide.
“It’s not like retail has disappeared,” Flaherty said. “Retail has started to contract a little bit and have some shift in consumer patterns in retail towards folks buying online and having them deliver it to their house.”
The National Retail Federation reports that retailers also are looking to fill a wide range of jobs that do not get counted as “retail” by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including office and administrative positions along with transportation and logistics jobs.
“What people don’t realize is besides the brick-and-mortar retail, the whole transportation and logistics part of the businesses is really what is skyrocketing,” said Bill Villano, CEO of Workforce Alliance, an employment center based in New Haven County.
The organization held roughly 25 hiring events as it looked to fill about 1,200 positions starting in October, including the newly opened Boscov’s in the Connecticut Post Mall in Milford.
The store replaced J.C. Penney after the latter’sclosure last year, which left a large void in the mall.