A holiday hiring forecast unveiled this week from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. has specified that extra caution is required to be taken by retailers suffering with serious cutbacks in consumer spending before hiring temporary, seasonal workers. 

John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger described large discounters such as Target and Walmart, which could be heavily favored by recession-weary consumers, as the best places to find jobs. 

As per Walmart spokeswoman Michelle Bradford, applications are now taken online by the company, which also takes them at hiring kiosks in stores for seasonal jobs. 
Challenger expects holiday hiring to be a little over 2008 levels, but only because last year witnessed the lowest seasonal job growth in nearly 20 years.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that 384,300 temporary holiday workers were hired in retail establishments from October to December last year, which is about half of the number hired in 2007.

So far, some local and national retailers are hiring workforce. 

Steve Kopitz, president of Bloomfield Hills-based Summit Sports, which owns Don Thomas Sporthaus, skis.com and eight other e-commerce sites, expressed that the 100-employee company is in expansion mode.

The company is hiring approx 30 new workers in full- and part-time positions, which include customer service representatives, general warehouse and Internet marketing.