Holiday hiring expected to be down in Tri-Cities

Washington should see a small uptick in seasonal retail hiring this holiday season, though metropolitan areas, including the Tri-Cities, are more likely to see fewer such jobs.

The Washington Employment Security Department estimates 15,000 temporary workers, mostly in retail, will be hired for the Christmas shopping season, which typically stretches from October to late December.

That would be a 1.7 percent increase over last year’s seasonal hires.

Nationally, outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates relatively flat holiday hiring at 755,000 during the next few months.

But of the hiring estimates given for Washington’s 11 largest cities and urban areas, only Olympia is expected to see more Christmas season workers.

Kennewick is projected to have about 550 people hired to temporary positions.

That would be a 25 percent drop from the more than 730 hired last year. No individual figures were provided for Richland or Pasco.

State economist Paul Turek said the expected bump in seasonal hiring around the state is a reflection of retail positions becoming balanced between rural and urban areas.

And Kennewick’s decline is less an indicator of the region’s economy and more a sign of shopping trends.

“Urban shoppers are more Internet savvy,” he said, noting that online sales are taking a bigger share of shoppers’ money in the state’s more populated communities. “As a result, we don’t see the need for hiring there.”

At the same time, retailers had 700 more people on the job in August, the most recent month with job data, compared with a year ago.

That also satisfies the need for more staff come the holiday shopping season, Turek said.

This story was originally published October 4, 2015 at 9:06 PM with the headline "Holiday hiring expected to be down in Tri-Cities."