The Holiday Buying Season Takes on a New Shape as Online Shopping Continues to Rise
The holiday buying season is here, but the familiar rush of shopping and seasonal jobs is taking on a new shape as online shopping continues to shift the work landscape. According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, retailers are expected to add 520,000 seasonal jobs, a drop from last year’s 564,000.
The decline signals a larger trend: the growing dominance of e-commerce. Online shopping is continuing to siphon business from traditional brick-and-mortar stores, with 76% of American shoppers planning to buy at least half of their gifts online this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The retail sector is projected to shrink by 0.2% annually over the next decade as in-store sales continue to decline and e-commerce expands. For every new e-commerce fulfillment center opening, around 1,000 local jobs disappear, the National Bureau of Economic Research found.
However, there is a silver lining, as online shopping is expected to create 450,000 jobs by 2026 in the U.S. With this shifting workforce, the biggest names in retail are making adjustments. Amazon and UPS are leading the charge, adding 250,000 and 125,000 seasonal positions, respectively, most of which focus on fulfilling and delivering online orders.
Over the Thanksgiving-to-Cyber Monday weekend, online sales reached a record $41.1 billion, according to data from Adobe Analytics, with fewer shoppers visiting physical stores. In fact, Black Friday foot traffic dropped by nearly 2% compared to last year. Despite this, the holiday buying season is expected to be a significant driver of job creation in the e-commerce sector.