Amazon announces second Prime Day, Macy's plans to hire over 41,000 holiday workers
Retailers like Macy's have already begun recruiting holiday employees in anticipation of the fall shopping season, while Amazon plans a second Amazon Prime Day in October.
Video Transcript
RACHELLE AKUFFO: Retailers are gearing up for a huge holiday season, as more companies plan to ramp up their hiring. Macy's is the latest department store looking to fill more than 41,000 seasonal positions. Other discount retailers like Target and Walmart said last week that they plan to hire additional workers as well. We know about 40,000-- and I know for Walmart, that's slightly lower than usual. But I mean, when you look at Target, they're talking about 100,000 employees. So they're really putting all their eggs in these baskets right now at a time when there's already-- like, the jobs are like 2 to 1. So this is an interesting time to be really pushing for more hiring.
SEANA SMITH: It is an interesting time. I think it also really tells us about the current economic environment, right? Some of the bigger retailers pulling back on hiring plans. Maybe they don't expect as strong as demand as we have seen in recent years. Macy's, though, coming out, saying, 41,000 they plan to hire. That's largely anything in line with what we had heard from Macy's in prior years. Also important to point out that more than 10,000 of their holiday workers turned into full-time employees last year. So it will be interesting to see whether or not that trend sticks this year.
I also want to bring up a huge story in retail today. Amazon's second Prime Day sale, it's going to happen next year. It's the first time that they are holding two of these events in the same year. I think holiday sales, they are expected to grow from last year, although a lot of that has to do with inflation. So Rachelle, it will be interesting to compare the numbers that we'll see next year-- or excuse me, next month or maybe the top products or whatever Amazon decides to publish-- we know they don't always put the exact numbers out there-- and compare that to what we normally see play out on Prime Day in the summer.
RACHELLE AKUFFO: And it's interesting because when Prime Day was happening in the summer, a lot of people were wondering, are consumers really going to get on board with inflation so high and having so many options? But they had a bumper, a really bumper Prime Day. So they're hammering it right out, moving right into October. It does seem like what would usually be these Thanksgiving holiday sales just creeping up earlier and earlier. I'm not ready for all that holiday shopping while the sun is still out, and the weather is still nice. So I will probably still take a peek, though, because I mean, how can you resist? It's Prime Day.
SEANA SMITH: I know. I'm a big Amazon fan, so I certainly probably will be shopping during their October event. But really, they're following suit in terms of just getting on board with all the pent-up excitement around Black Friday, Cyber Monday. They want to join in on more of this holiday fun.
