Unwrapping Holiday Hiring
November 24, 2025The end-of-the-year holiday season provides retailers and package delivery companies with a much-needed end-of-year boost in sales. To respond to this increase in demand, some businesses hire extra workers, often on a temporary basis. Businesses with this kind of strong holiday employment pattern comprise “holiday hiring” industries and are found in the retail trade and transportation and warehousing sectors. An industry’s “holiday buildup,” or the number of employees added from September to December, is a convenient way to measure holiday hiring activity.
Over the past few years, total employment in holiday hiring industries has declined, even as holiday buildups have increased, indicating a looser labor market which gives holiday hiring business more confidence in the ability to find temporary workers.
Larger Holiday Buildup, Lower Employment
The 2024 holiday season had a holiday buildup of 9,300 employees, an 8.5% increase from September to December. That’s higher than the 8,700 (7.7%) buildup in 2023 and the 7,100 (6.2%) rise in 2022.
At the same time, holiday hiring businesses employed fewer workers throughout 2024, and failed to reach the peak December employment of the previous two years. The December 2024 peak was 1,500 jobs lower than 2023 and 2,500 jobs lower than 2022. The September 2024 base was 2,200 lower than September 2023 and 4,800 lower than 2022.
This corresponds to a looser labor market in 2024. In the few years immediately following the pandemic recession, Oregon’s unemployment rate dropped historically low and job vacancies reached historic highs. This meant that employers had a hard time finding employees and were more reluctant to let them go once they had them. Oregon’s unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in mid-2023, close to its lowest recorded rate, but then drifted upwards, rising to 4.1% by the start of 2024 and 4.3% by the end of the year. The lower September employment base and higher holiday buildup could indicate that employers were more likely to let go of workers in 2024 and had more bargaining power to bring them back during that year’s holiday season.
Transportation and Warehousing was the Shining Star of 2024’s Holiday Hiring
Over the last decade, transportation and warehousing has grown as the expansion of e-commerce increased demand for package delivery services. The holiday buildup for this sector was nearly 5,300 in 2024, close to double the 3,100-job buildup in 2014. Total employment has also increased over the decade, reaching its peak in 2020 and 2021, as the pandemic pushed consumers towards delivery services.
The stronger buildup in 2024 comes after a relatively weak buildup in 2022, which only just exceeded 2014’s buildup. In 2023 and 2024, the total employment in holiday hiring transportation and warehousing remained consistent, but the holiday buildup grew slightly, mirroring the trend across all holiday hiring sectors.
Couriers and Messengers Deliver Largest Holiday Buildup
Holiday buildup was especially concentrated in a few industries in 2024. Reflecting the prominence of e-commerce, private couriers and messengers had the largest buildup, adding 3,500 jobs. Other industries with a large buildup included general merchandise retailers (1,800); warehousing and storage (1,700); clothing, clothing accessories, shoe, and jewelry retailers (1,200); and health and personal care retailers (550).
2025’s Wish List
The holiday buildup in the past few years have been followed by increasingly large post-holiday employment declines. We won’t know how this season’s holiday hiring compares with prior years until sometime in the New Year, but employment forecasts can suggest what the future might bring. The National Retail Federation forecasts fewer seasonal hires in 2025 than in 2024, reflecting a slower job market. The December 2025 employment forecast from the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis (OEA) projects Oregon’s retail trade employment to increase by 600 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2025. OEA expects transportation, warehousing, and utilities to increase by a similar number of jobs in the same period. It is important to note that these forecasts are for entire sectors, not just holiday hiring industries. Still, they suggest that this year’s holiday buildup might be smaller than last year.