Here’s How the Majors Will Be Hiring This Holiday Season

New York—Prognosticators have made their predictions for 2018 holiday sales and, if they are right, then retailers are in for a solid season.

The National Retail Federation said it expects retail sales in November and December—excluding automobiles, gas and restaurants—to increase between 4.3 and 4.8 percent over last year with spending totaling $717.45 billion to $720.89 billion.

This exceeds the average annual increase of 3.9 percent over the past five years and is in line with the NRF’s prediction that annual retail sales for 2018 will increase at least 4.5 percent compared with 2017.

“With this year’s forecast, we continue to see strong momentum from consumers as they do the heavy lifting in supporting our economy,” NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz said. “The combination of increased job creation, improved wages, tamed inflation and an increase in net worth all provide the capacity and the confidence to spend.”

Deloitte’s sales forecast is even more bullish, with the firm predicting holiday sales will increase 5 to 5.6 percent over last year. The firm also expects a 17 to 22 percent increase in e-commerce sales in 2018, compared with 16.6 percent in 2017.

Deloitte’s U.S. economic forecaster, Daniel Bachman, said the anticipated holiday sales growth is likely because of solid disposable personal income growth as well as a strong labor market, elevated consumer confidence and a stable personal savings rate.

In addition to these predictions, a good indicator of the strength or weakness of the coming season is an examination of major retailers and their holiday hiring plans; hiring more extra help is generally an indication that the retailers think more consumers will be shopping.

And if that’s the case, 2018 could be a big one.

According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, holiday hiring announcements this year have surpassed the previous record total of about 696,000 seasonal jobs set in 2014. So far, companies hiring for the holidays have announced plans to add 704,000 jobs for the upcoming season.

The surge in hiring comes as consumer confidence hits an 18-year high, according to the firm.

Interestingly, Challenger also noted that seasonal jobs no longer are just in retail; with the rise of online shopping, transport and warehousing companies also are looking for holiday employees.

Here’s are the seasonal hiring plans of a few of the nation’s largest retailers.

Target will hire about 120,000 seasonal employees to serve guests across