Amazon plans to hire 250K seasonal workers as retail braces for the holiday crunch

That’s a lotta blue vests… The time of year when retail onboarding videos boast primetime-viewership numbers is upon us. Amazon said it plans to hire 250K US workers for its holiday season — maintaining its staffing level from last year — as it prepares to handle an estimated 42% of the country’s online orders this fall and winter. Last month, rival Target said it would also repeat last year’s hiring level, bringing on 100K workers. Retailers are on a hiring spree to cover the industry’s most important stretch of the year.

• Now hiring: JCPenney said it’ll bring on 10K+ workers this season, while competitor Macy’s is adding 32K seasonal employees. Bath & Body Works plans to recruit 30K and Walmart is expected to hire about 40K.

• Short-staffed: While major retailers are maintaining holiday staff levels, the US is expected to add about 8% fewer retail jobs in the last quarter of the year, the second lowest total in the past 15 years.

Seeing the shopping bag half full… The nation’s retailers breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after union dockworkers reached a deal to suspend their strike till January 15. The work stoppage at the East and Gulf Coast ports was expected to disrupt nearly half of all US imports and create a holiday supply-chain nightmare. Still, sellers are facing some hurdles this holiday season, when more than half of US retail revenue is generated. Sales are expected to grow at the slowest pace since 2018, and almost 60% of US shoppers say inflation will ding their gift budget.