Amazon, UPS, Spirit Halloween among major employers adding holiday workers for 2026 season

Amazon is looking to fill more than 300,000 full-time, part-time, and seasonal roles across its U.S. operations this holiday season — a 20% jump from a year ago, or roughly 50,000 additional positions — making it the most aggressive recruiter in what analysts expect to be a relatively quiet year for holiday hiring overall.

Seasonal workers at Amazon will earn an average of $20 per hour, and the company is dangling a retention incentive: temporary employees who stay through January and work at least 30 hours a week will become eligible for medical benefits, according to an Amazon blog post dated October 20. New postings are being added weekly through December; job seekers can apply at amazon.com/localjobs or by texting NEWJOB to 31432.

UPS, meanwhile, announced plans to bring on more than 100,000 seasonal workers — roughly in line with previous years — and says many applicants can receive a job offer in less than seven minutes. Spirit Halloween, the largest Halloween retailer in the U.S., plans to employ a record 52,000 associates at store locations. Butterball, known for its Thanksgiving turkey hotline, said it is also hiring its largest team on record to staff the Turkey Talk-Line ahead of the holiday.

But zoom out and the picture is more subdued. Overall seasonal retail hiring is projected to fall below last year's 450,000 positions — which would mark the lowest holiday recruitment since 2008 — according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Seasonal hiring for logistics and warehouse companies is expected to be roughly flat from a year ago. Notably, Walmart and Target have again declined to announce seasonal recruiting plans, a departure from the large-scale pandemic-era hiring sprees both companies once publicized.

Almost every hiring announcement we've seen in the last three years is smaller and more surgical than the pre-pandemic playbook.— Andy Challenger, Chief Revenue Officer, Challenger, Gray and Christmas

The broader labor market offers some context for the caution. September's jobs report showed approximately 29,000 positions added — well below the 162,000 economists had projected — and unemployment currently sits at 4.2%, according to ABC News. Inflation remains a concern for shoppers heading into the spending season.

Still, there are reasons for retailers to invest in staffing. U.S. shoppers are projected to spend $275.1 billion online in November and December, up 6.7% from 2025, according to Adobe. Amazon alone captures nearly 40 cents of every dollar spent online, according to EMarketer. That shift toward e-commerce is visible in the job-posting data: seasonal retail postings are up 10% compared to this time last year, according to Indeed Hiring Lab, but postings for physical store roles have declined. Loading and stocking jobs are up 9%, sales roles up 8%, and customer service positions up 6% — categories that reflect the continued growth of online shopping.

The October jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled for release in November and will offer a fuller picture of where the labor market stands heading into the peak shopping period. Many of the seasonal roles listed above remain open into November; company career sites carry location-specific listings and application details.

Why it matters — With hundreds of thousands of short-term jobs opening up at wages around $20/hr — and some offering a path to benefits — the holiday hiring window is one of the fastest entry points into the workforce, even as the broader job market grows more selective.

Reported by abcnews.com, usatoday.com, wwd.com, thestreet.com, ttnews.com