November holiday hiring slows

Nationwide retail employment grew by 300,800 net jobs in November, a 6% slower pace than in the same month a year ago.

That growth, reported by Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., does not adjust for seasonal fluctuations in employment. On a seasonally adjusted basis, retail employment shrank by 28,100 jobs, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

While the news seems negative, a slightly adjusted perspective changes the outlook: since Oct. 1, retailers have added 432,600 net jobs. As a result, hiring over the last two months is 18% stronger than it was in 2009.

Between 2004 and 2007, retailers added more than 700,000 additional net jobs in the last three months of the year. But in 2008, retail job growth was cut in half, with only 324,900 jobs added. After rebounding in 2009 to a 501,400-net-job gain from October to December, roughly 70,000 new retail jobs are needed to pass last year's total.

Since 1999, retailers have added an average of 183,500 jobs to their payrolls in December, according to the report issued by Challenger.