Seasonal Retail Jobs – Hiring for Back to School

The final months of summer break can provide a great opportunity to earn extra cash and gain work experience for your resume. Plenty of seasonal jobs hire staff members to gain extra support during the late-summer months, which can be great for individuals who are exclusively looking for a temporary job referred from a retail staffing agency and don’t want to be tied down to a long-term work commitment. 

This resource will discuss the short-term positions and seasonal retail jobs available to help you gain cash and experience this upcoming season.

What is Seasonal Work?

Seasonal jobs are short-term positions that retail employers fill in order to gain extra support during their businesses’ busiest time periods. These positions are commonly associated with summertime or holiday periods when there is a greater demand for the workforce in retail. 

Pros and Cons of Seasonal Retail Jobs

As with any job, seasonal work can have its advantages and drawbacks. Below are some of the common pros and cons associated with seasonal retail positions.

Pros:

1. Resume-building – While a seasonal job may not be aligned with your dream career, it can help you gain work experience for your resume. Adding a seasonal job to your work history can show future employers that you have maintained a professional role and gained experience with various work tasks.

2. Recurring work potential – Maintaining a friendly and professional relationship with your seasonal employer can make them more likely to offer you recurring work. Seasonal job opportunities usually occur on a yearly basis, so rather than hire and train new workers, employers frequently rehire workers from previous seasons.

3. Full-time job opportunities – By displaying responsibility and dedication to your position, you can demonstrate your value to your seasonal employer. While they may only need temporary workers for holiday jobs now, they may consider you for hire when looking to fill full-time job opportunities. 

Cons:

1. Lack of training – Seasonal employment means that the time you are working is limited. Therefore, jobs will have less time to train new workers, especially if the busy season has already begun. Unfortunately, this can cause seasonal workers to receive insufficient training, which can be especially difficult during busy work periods. 

2. Lower wages – Businesses that hire seasonal workers generally do not provide them with the same pay rate as they would their permanent staff members. As a temporary employee, you may experience pay rates that are slightly lower in exchange for the convenience of working in a temporary role.

While seasonal positions may not be perfect, these job opportunities can still provide many advantages to those who take them. And if the role isn’t ideal, the temporary nature of the position means that you will only need to work through the season and can still walk away with some decent money for your work.

If you choose to seek seasonal employment opportunities, try using Adia. The Adia on-demand staffing platform helps workers through the job search and hiring processes. Furthermore, staffing through Adia means that the downsides of seasonal retail are considerably lower than they would be through employment with other staffing agencies. 

Why is Now the Right Time to Look for Seasonal Retail Opportunities?

Summer and holidays are not the only time to look for seasonal retail opportunities. Most stores require more help during the late summer months to push their back-to-school products. In fact, the late-summer to winter time period requires increased labor from retail businesses, being that this is a time of constant transformation in their products in order to keep up with holidays and seasonal changes.

During the weeks when summertime is winding down, there is an increased demand for seasonal workers to take newly-opened positions for the back-to-school season, especially in retail work. As student summer-break workers return to school after the summer vacation, more positions open up that need to be filled to keep the business afloat. In addition, the months leading up to winter are when retailers are preparing for their holiday merchandise sales and need more staff members to maintain inventory and keep up with consumer demand. For these reasons, now is the optimal time to begin seeking out seasonal retail job opportunities.

Another relevant factor influencing the workforce demand for seasonal employees is COVID-19. Since the pandemic, many businesses within the United States fell victim to the effects of “The Great Resignation,” as many workers chose to forgo their previously-maintained positions. This has resulted in the current labor shortage, causing businesses and organizations to take on more opportunities to hire staff members as a way to amend their under-staffed teams.

What Retail Sectors Have the Highest Demand for Seasonal Workers?

While many retail sectors hire seasonal labor, some sectors are more likely to have an increased demand for seasonal workers than others. In the following text, I will discuss the five retail sectors that will most commonly hire seasonal retail employees at this time of the year. By focusing on the retail business sectors below, you will increase your likelihood of getting hired straight away for a seasonal work position.

Big Retailers

Big Retailers are usually well-known national chains that coordinate their sales nationwide and never miss an opportunity to push their seasonal products. These are the stores that sell it all and have everything necessary for parents as they look for supplies that their children need for the new school year. And with the winter season approaching, customers are likely to frequent these retailers for all of their holiday one-stop shopping needs.

Since these retailers have to manage so much merchandise during busy seasons, there is a higher demand for seasonal workers to fill retail positions like stockers and other associate roles. The most popular retail positions that are filled during this time would be in inventory management to help maintain merchandise and perform stocker duties. For example, a retail inventory specialist position provides an average base salary of $53,247 per year, according to Indeed. Big retailer businesses that are commonly hiring during this time include companies like Walmart, which hires its staff members through the Adia on-demand staffing platform.

Department Stores

Another great example of a retail sector with high demand for seasonal staff would be department stores. When kids are going back to school, department stores are already steps ahead and preparing for the next big shopping event. Holidays are the time period when department stores can bring in a lot of business, so they usually will hire seasonal staff members to help them prepare months in advance.

A unique and popular retail position that department stores often try to fill during this time period is the role of a visual merchandiser. These staff members work on in-store displays that highlight products and catch the eye of customers. In the United States, a visual merchandiser position provides an average base salary of $43,006 per year, according to Zippia. Department stores that are commonly hiring during this time include companies like Macy’s.

Stationery Stores

With a new school year around the corner, businesses that sell school supplies are hiring staff members to help during this busy time. Schools often provide students with lists of supplies that they will need to purchase at the beginning of the school year, so this provides the perfect opportunity for these businesses to sell their products. That is if they are prepared with the staff necessary to assist customers and keep operations running smoothly.

Therefore, stationery stores will hire more help for busy seasons in the form of cashiers. These professionals are necessary to the success of these stores, as they need to be able to assist the large influx of customers with their purchases. Cashiers may be hired as seasonal associates to help keep shoppers happy and keep business moving quickly. They are responsible for processing customer purchases and other transactions, including exchanges, returns, and more. Some stationary stores that are likely to seek out new seasonal staff members to help with upcoming business include businesses like Staples and The UPS Store, which source their staff members through Adia.

Clothing Stores

Clothing retailers are constantly selling new merchandise, especially during the fall and winter months. As the weather becomes colder and holiday event plans are made, customers seek out new clothing items for themselves and their loved ones. For this reason, clothing stores and fashion retailers consistently seek out seasonal associates to help during the end of summer and onward, who assist in preparing for the new merchandise drops and helping customers with their shopping needs.

As more shoppers frequent clothing stores for the latest seasonal fashions, these stores need more help from their staff to keep customers happy. To help customers with their inquiries and shopping needs, clothing stores will often hire additional associate members to fill seasonal customer service jobs. Customer service representatives will work on the floor to answer product questions, assist customers looking to try on clothing items, and improve the overall customer experience. Retail customer service representatives in the United States earn an average salary of $32,225 per year, according to Indeed, and can even make more depending on the store’s location. If you are looking for a seasonal clothing store gig to get you some extra money this fall, consider applying to stores like GUESS, TJ Maxx, and Burlington Stores.

Sporting Stores

A new school year means new sports seasons. Therefore, sporting stores have more opportunities to sell sporting equipment to the parents of kids that take on athletic extracurriculars. Additionally, these vendors often sell merchandise representing national sports teams, and with football picking up again in the fall, they are more likely to sell these products. With all of these chances for sporting stores to make sales, they will also likely seek out help to assist shoppers and keep their customers satisfied.

Sporting stores often employ seasonal workers to act as retail sales associates. These sales associates are tasked with assisting with customer questions, which is necessary when answering questions from curious shoppers about the latest sporting equipment and athletic gear. In addition, these employees may also perform sales associate tasks like processing orders, upselling products to increase sales, and maintaining a neat and inviting store environment. Retail sales associates in the United States make on average $44,631 per year, according to Indeed. If you are interested in finding a seasonal retail sales associate position, you should try looking for employment opportunities from businesses like DICK’s Sporting Goods.

Find Your Next Seasonal Retail Job With Adia

Adia is the best on-demand staffing platform for potential employees looking to get hired as seasonal retail staff. They help workers every step of the way, so they can access profitable seasonal work opportunities and get paid fast. With the Adia staffing platform, workers connect with employers to facilitate job connections and help them process their employment directly on the platform. This way, you can start earning money in a temporary, seasonal position in no time. 

Hiring Seasonal Retail Workers? Try Adia! 

The Adia on-demand staffing platform helps workers and businesses facilitate strong employment connections. If you are looking for hard-working, qualified staff members to fill your open roles, try the Adia platform. Employers who use Adia gain access to an entire database with pre-vetted local workers that are eager to fill open positions. So visit the Adia website at https://adia.works/ to learn more about how you can hire the right seasonal workers for your retail business through the Adia platform. Or, try our staffing agency in Atlanta, as well as our staffing agency in NYC.