Retailers Cut Seasonal Hires, but Holiday Gig Work Stays Hot

The classic holiday side hustle just got harder to land. Retailers plan to hire roughly four hundred fifty thousand seasonal workers during the final quarter of the year, according to a September outlook from Challenger, Gray and Christmas, reported by Self Employed. That number would fall below last year's four hundred sixty-one thousand five hundred hires, which already marked the weakest seasonal gain since the two thousand eight financial crisis. If the projection holds, holiday gig work may end up carrying a bigger share of seasonal earning than the retail counter ever did.

Last year's total was already down about fifteen percent from the five hundred forty-three thousand one hundred seasonal jobs added two years earlier, the report shows. Transportation and warehousing told a similar story, adding roughly two hundred sixty-six thousand five hundred positions during last year's peak season, a drop of about twelve percent from the year before. Holiday hiring is cooling across the board, not just on the sales floor. For students and young workers who count on a December paycheck to cover January bills, the trend line matters more than any single company's announcement.

Only a handful of chains have spelled out their plans so far. Spirit Halloween is bringing on fifty-two thousand seasonal associates and Michaels is adding more than ten thousand, according to Self Employed. The giants have stayed quiet: Amazon, Target, Bath and Body Works, and Kohl's have not yet released their seasonal headcount numbers. Those figures are expected in the coming weeks, and given their scale, they could still shift the overall picture.

Why retailers are hiring fewer seasonal workers

Challenger's report describes retailers as leaning on what it calls "automation, existing associates, and on-demand pools" instead of committing to large seasonal hiring waves. In plain terms, flexible labor is one of the tools retailers plan to use to cover the holiday rush. Tariffs and elevated prices were also cited as factors keeping retailers cautious about headcount, according to the outlook. The result is a shift in how seasonal demand gets staffed, with more of it flowing through holiday gig work and less through traditional temp hiring.

A traditional seasonal retail job comes with set shifts, a payroll pay stub, and often an employee discount. Holiday gig work trades that structure for flexibility: delivery routes, warehouse-adjacent task apps, and surge shifts that expand and contract with demand. One model is shrinking while the other is exactly the kind of labor retailers say they are counting on.

What this means for holiday gig work

Store hiring is down, but total seasonal work may hold steady. If retailers are routing peak-season volume toward flexible labor instead of training temporary staff, demand for holiday gig work in delivery, rideshare, and task-based apps could stay firm while store jobs disappear. Timing matters: workers who plan to lean on gig apps for extra holiday income should sign up early for surge or peak-season programs, since starting in December can mean missing the best batches and shifts, according to Self Employed.

The pullback is also a reason to plan past the retail counter. Side hustlers who have always treated the holiday season as a guaranteed fallback may want a backup plan this year, because seasonal hiring is already sitting near a two thousand eight era low and the new outlook points to it shrinking again. Digital side hustles that run year-round, from newsletters to affiliate storefronts, do not depend on anyone's hiring calendar. Readers who want ideas beyond delivery apps can look at how creators are building affiliate income and at why gig workers became the biggest food stamp category, a reminder that flexibility alone does not guarantee security.

When Amazon, Target, Bath and Body Works, and Kohl's release their seasonal hiring numbers, those figures will show whether the smaller chains were outliers or early signals. If the majors also pull back, the gap will land squarely on holiday gig work to fill.