Employers in the food service and retail sectors are expanding benefits as they bulk up staff for the holiday season. And with the continued shift to online purchasing of an ever wider range of items, it appears more of the seasonal hires will be moved to permanent positions once the holiday rush is over.

Those observations come from the online job search provider Jobdiagnosis.com, which specializes in food service and retail listings. The company said considerable anecdotal information indicates the benefits and seasonal-to-permanent trends have taken hold in those industries.

In a release, Jobdiagnosis.com reported that online retail firms and related companies will be adding more staff this season than last. Among the examples cited:

Amazon plans to hire 100,000 employees for winter seasonal positions;
UPS will add 95,000 seasonal positions as it grows to handle the extra service demand created by online retailers like Amazon;
Similarly, FedEx plans to hire 55,000 seasonal employees.

Meantime, brick-and-mortar retailers are also staffing up for a big sales season. Examples include:

Macy’s, hiring 85,000;
Target, 70,000;
Wal-Mart, 60,000;
Gamestop, 28,000.

Jobdiagnosis.com said in recent years, these employers have been retaining an increasing percentage of seasonal workers as full-time staff, a trend that will increase in 2016. Meantime, as these retail players seek to become more competitive, they are beefing up benefits packages and extending the enhanced packages to more employees than in the past. More employers are offering education and training related benefits as they pursue a strategy of building a better educated workforce, Jobdiagnosis.com said.

“If this [benefits] trend gains traction and spreads, it will have a positive influence not only on the hourly workers, but on the job market and economy in general,” says Michael Derikrava, president of Jobdiagnosis.com. “People will gain skills that will enable them to move up to management positions, which will open up additional opportunities for more entry-level customer support jobs. This will also reduce employee turnover for the companies, because of the economic advantage these benefits will give their employees.”

Instant Insights /

More employers moving seasonal hires to full timers

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