Amazon, UPS, Walmart and more competing for seasonal workers during tight labor market in Hampton Roads

Santa needs some extra helpers this year to get holiday gifts onto his sleigh and into homes.

Retailers, e-commerce giant Amazon and delivery companies are putting out the call for seasonal employees to come on board, but they’ll be competing with other Hampton Roads businesses who have been struggling to find workers during the pandemic.

Amazon expects to hit its hiring goal like it did last year, Ricky Derring of Amazon Workforce Staffing said.

Amazon is hiring 2,200 seasonal workers in Hampton Roads — mainly pickers and packers for facilities in Norfolk, Chesapeake, Hampton and Virginia Beach, he said. On Oct. 18, the company announced hiring 150,000 seasonal employees throughout the U.S., enticing workers with average starting pay at $18 per hour, sign-on bonuses up to $3,000 and an additional $3 per hour depending on the shift.

“We are already in our hiring peak,” Derring said.

Seasonal workers not only help deliver on promises to customers but also provide flexibility to full-time employees during busy periods, said Alicia Boler Davis, senior vice president of global customer fulfillment at Amazon. Seasonal work can also lead to a full-time position.

Walmart has taken several steps over the past year to ensure all stores, including those in Hampton Roads, are well-staffed, spokesperson Matt Joyner said. That includes holiday hiring.

The big-box retailer plans to add about 150,000 new workers across the country, but could not provide numbers for Hampton Roads. He said hiring efforts are catered to the needs of each store. On average, hourly employees at Walmart earn $16.40.

“Many of our store associates like to pick up extra hours over the holiday season, and we’ll continue to offer those opportunities as well,” Joyner said.

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Getting a foot in the door

UPS is hiring more than 100,000 seasonal employees nationwide including drivers, driver helpers, package sorters, and loaders. UPS spokesperson Lizzy Crouse couldn’t provide a specific number for Hampton Roads, but said the delivery company is looking for full-time and part-time seasonal workers in Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach primarily as package handlers, drivers and driver helpers.

“In order to compete in one of the tightest labor markets in U.S. history, UPS has re-imagined its approach to holiday hiring, presenting job offers to qualified candidates in 30 minutes or less,” Crouse said.

Crouse also noted that 37% of seasonal employees hired in 2020 were brought on permanently after the holidays. Seasonal work turning into long-term employment could be attractive to workers who were unemployed or furloughed during the pandemic.

While FedEx continues to navigate operational challenges due to constrained labor markets and increased package volume throughout the pandemic, the company expects to bring on more than 90,000 employees nationwide during the holiday peak season.

“We strongly encourage all customers planning on shopping online for the holidays to shop early and ship early,” Sederia Gray, senior communications specialist for FedEx, said.

Lowe’s is well-prepared for the holiday season, spokesperson Amy Allison said.

“There are some parts of the country that are more difficult to staff than others, but we feel good about how we’re positioned from a labor perspective,” she said.

During Lowe’s busiest season during springtime, the retailer had hired more than 50,000 seasonal part-time and full-time workers this year, Allison said.

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Small businesses optimistic

At Taylor’s Do It Center, communications director Meg Taylor also reiterated that spring and fall are typically its busier seasons when employee count increases.

“We are busy during the holiday season with Christmas trees,” she said. “In the months ahead, we will bring in part-time help to assist with the trees — usually high school or college students.”

The business projects holiday spending to be on par with last year, which was exceptionally strong, Taylor said.

“At present, business remains strong, but like many other businesses we are consistently fighting significant supply chain interruptions,” she said.

For the past 28 years, Jim Abicht, owner of The Christmas Store in Smithfield, has placed a small sign on the counter to announce holiday hiring.

“Within two weeks, I’d have more than I wanted,” Abicht said. “This year, I had the sign out two months and I had a 14-year-old apply with zero experience. It’s a challenge this year.”

Abicht said he always brings in extra help — about eight to 10 employees — around the holidays.

“We hire people who can do everything: writing tickets, cashiering, wrapping bought merchandise, pricing, stocking and merchandising, and whatever else is needed,” he said.

He has brought on four employees for the holiday season and several college students will return over Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. Closed for more than three months at the start of the pandemic, the store has held its own ever since and felt supported by the community, he said.

“We’re in a fortunate position (because) in years past we’ve bought too much and so our shelves will not be empty this year,” he said. “We don’t exactly sell essentials; we sell happiness.”

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Pool of regional workers shrinks

Seasonal hiring is good news for the region’s economic recovery where consumption has driven rehiring and expansion in some sectors, said Robert McNab, economics professor at Old Dominion University and director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy.

Retail trade has almost fully recovered in terms of jobs in Hampton Roads, McNab said. That compares with sectors like leisure and hospitality and education and health services, which lost 12,800 jobs and 10,300 jobs, respectively, from September 2019 to September this year.

The broader question, he said, is that the region’s labor force has continued to shrink in Hampton Roads.

“That means people have exited the labor force entirely and more have joined them even as jobs have rebounded off their loss,” he said. “For seasonal hiring, this is going to pose a problem for employers because they are competing from a smaller and smaller pool of available labor.”

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com