Toys ‘R’ Us to hire 40000 seasonal workers

Toys R Us says it won’t hire as many holiday season employees as it did past year, but the toy and baby products retailer says it will give current employees and seasonal workers a chance to work more hours. “This will also help ensure we are fully staffed with overall labor needs comparable to previous year in order to serve our customers in stores and online”. Retailers added about 755,000 people past year to their payrolls from October through December, down from 786,800 in 2013, which had been the strongest outlook since 1999. The jobs are primarily as package handlers, drivers and driver helpers, the company said. UPS workers will help handle shipping and deliveries throughout the country. That’s above the 50,000 workers the Memphis, Tennessee, company said it would hire last holiday season.

But those workers will average 18 to 20 hours per week, and up to 30 hours during peak season, depending on their availability.

Toys R Us’ announcement comes just hours after a widely watched holiday forecast predicted that retail hiring will remain flat during the final three months of the year. Many like to tout that a sizable share of people who work in these jobs wind up staying on as permanent employees. Last year, 20 percent of the company’s seasonal workforce got jobs at Toys R Us after Christmas.