Christmas Job Postings Bounce as Employers Seek Elves and Santas

Christmas and seasonal job postings in Ireland have surged compared to last year according to new data published by Indeed.com, the world’s largest jobs site. Year to date the number of seasonal job postings is up 11% compared to 2017.

Unsurprisingly there is a surge in postings for Christmas related roles in the early Autumn, as businesses prepare for the busy festive period. The seasonal roles advertised to date are predominantly customer-facing sales jobs in the retail sector (73%). Other big seasonal roles help ensure that retailers do not run out of stock, with hiring focused on stocking, merchandising, driving and warehouse work.

The hospitality sector appears to be better able to cover for Christmas with its existing staff, as restaurant, bar and catering roles represent only 2% of seasonal job postings to date. Jobs that required the successful candidate to dress up as Santa, Mrs Claus or an elf accounted for 4% of the postings.

Indeed’s analysis reviewed jobs posted on Indeed.ie that included at least one of ‘christmas’, ‘xmas’, ‘seasonal’, ‘elf’, ‘holiday’,’santa’, ‘claus’ in the job title.

Pawel Adrjan, economist at Indeed, commented:

“Whilst shoppers can leave their Christmas preparations until later in the year, our data shows employers began ramping up their seasonal workforce in early Autumn. This year, however, Christmas jobs postings on Indeed in Ireland soared earlier and faster than in 2017.

“This is likely to be boosted by other seasonal retail events such as Black Friday, which happens in November. Demand for seasonal employment is increasing against a backdrop of record low unemployment, which makes it harder for businesses to find employees for temporary roles.

“Following the actions of companies like Amazon, which announced wage increases in the UK and US this month, it remains to be seen whether other employers in the logistics and retail sectors follow suit to attract more jobseekers to Christmas roles.”

The market for staff continues to get more competitive, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.3% in October according to the latest statistics from the CSO.