Nordstrom Hiring 3 Percent Less Seasonal Workers

Nordstrom, the department store operator, announced it would hire around 11,400 part-time workers for the holiday shopping season that officially kicks off on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

But while the retailer is hiring, it’s reportedly 3 percent less than a year ago. According to Reuters, Nordstrom is hiring around 9,500 temp workers in sales and stock positions, while an additional 1,900 will be hired to support the stores and its online business by staffing more workers in fulfillment and distribution centers. The move on the part of Nordstrom to staff more workers to support online sales seems to be a trend among brick-and-mortar retailers.

In September, a report came out that showed retailers will hire around 738,800 part-time workers starting in October, which Challenger, Gray & Christmas said is on par with 2015. But while retailers will do the lion’s share of hiring, it turns out it’s not for their store floors and cash registers. Rather, the hiring is for the warehouses and fulfillment centers that support eCommerce sales.

Take Target, for one example. It said it will hire 70,000, which is in line with last year’s levels. Target said hiring for the warehouses and fulfillment centers for its online sales will increase to 7,500 people. The other retailers haven’t announced their hiring plans yet, but Fortune said Target’s announcement is a sign that a growing trend of increasing warehouse staff during the holidays will continue. The report pointed to Macy’s, which last year lowered its in-store hiring but increased its part-time eCommerce fulfillment staff by 20 percent to 12,000 people. Amazon doubled its holiday season hiring between 2012 and 2015.

“The sector with the biggest increase in holiday hiring in recent years has been transportation and warehousing, as more and more holiday shopping is done online,” Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger said in the report.