Higher Pay for Holiday Jobs Expected This Year, CareerBuilder.com Survey Finds
— Need a little extra spending money for the holidays? Twenty-three percent of hiring managers say they are recruiting for holiday positions, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey. Nearly one-in-four expect to pay their seasonal hires more than last year, with 37 percent offering $10 or more per hour. The CareerBuilder.com survey, “Holiday Jobs,” was completed in September and included 1,150 hiring managers nationwide.
Comparing this year to last, 13 percent of hiring managers plan to add the same amount of seasonal employees while 5 percent plan to hire more.Another 5 percent will add employees, but on a smaller scale than 2005. Of those hiring, 86 percent are likely to treat holiday employment as an extended job interview and offer permanent positions to some seasonal employees.
Twenty-four percent of hiring managers plan to raise hourly wages for seasonal hires compared to last year, while 70 percent expect no change in pay scales. Six percent say the seasonal pay will be lower than last year. One- in-ten hiring managers expect to shell out $16 or more per hour, while 33 percent expect to pay $8 to $9 per hour and 31 expect to pay $7 or less per hour.
So, where can you find a seasonal gig? CareerBuilder.com identified the following hot spots for holiday jobs:
— Retail — stores are in need of extra sales clerks and stockers to
handle peak shopping periods
— Hospitality — hotels and resorts are looking for ski instructors,
restaurant servers and hotel clerks to help out in the busy travel
season
— Customer Service — companies augment their customer service staff to
handle increased gift orders and returns
— Delivery — package delivery companies hire more drivers and support
staff to handle heavier holiday shipments
— Office Support — businesses need temps to help out with end of the
year wrap-ups and fill in for vacationing workers
“Workers interested in seasonal positions should act fast,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.com.”The vast majority of hiring managers are already recruiting for seasonal positions and nearly half are filling their open positions in two weeks or less.”
Haefner offers the following tips for landing seasonal work:
1) Be flexible — 28 percent of hiring managers surveyed say the biggest
turnoff when considering a seasonal job candidate is his/her refusal to
work certain hours
2) Be enthusiastic — a lack of holiday spirit can impair your chances of
getting hired, according to 26 percent of those surveyed
3) Be serious — 19 percent of hiring managers are turned off by
individuals who don’t treat the position as a real job and don’t take the
responsibilities seriously
4) Be smart — a failure to be knowledgeable about the company or product
line is a major pet peeve for 8 percent of hiring managers looking to
fill seasonal positions.
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of
CareerBuilder.com among 1,150 hiring managers, ages 18 and over, within the
United States between August 31 and September 5, 2006. The ‘Employer’
segment was weighted by number of employees to bring them in line with
their actual proportions in the population. The segment was weighted using
propriety algorithms in order to align the online population to be more
representative demographically and behaviorally of the total population of
online and offline employers.
With a pure probability sample of 1,150, one could say with a 95
percent probability, that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-
4 percentage points. Sampling error for data from subsamples would be
higher and would vary. However, that does not take other sources of error
into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and
therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more
than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.5 million jobs. Owned by Gannett
Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB), and The McClatchy
Company (NYSE: MNI), the company offers a vast online and print network to
help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the
career centers for more than 1,100 partners that reach national, local,
industry and niche audiences. These include more than 185 newspapers and
leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 250,000 employers
take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s easy job postings, 18 million-plus
resumes, Diversity Channel and more. Millions of job seekers visit the site
every month to search for opportunities by industry, location, company and
job type, sign up for automatic email job alerts, and get advice on job
hunting and career management.