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Seasonal Jobs Start To Pick Up As Holiday Season Approaches

Aired October 12, 2003 - 16:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Finding work isn't easy these days. As the holiday season approaches many job seekers may have better luck, at least on a temporary basis. So when is the best time to look for seasonal jobs? How about right now?
Today's "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" gives the front page of their job section to the search for seasonal employment. And they are not alone. John Challenger of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas joins me from Chicago. He's a workplace trends analyst. And some in the business world say he is the work place trends analyst. John, good to see you again. Thanks for your time today.

JOHN CHALLENGER, WORKPLACE TRENDS ANALYST: Thanks so much, Renay.

SAN MIGUEL: Before we talk about the seasonal aspects, let me get your take on what we've heard the last couple of weeks. This week's claims numbers better than expected. And then the week before that, the non-farm payrolls being a little better than expected. I realize these do not a trend make. Are you seeing signs maybe this jobless recovery could be over?

CHALLENGER: Well, certainly it's a start. We've seen seven consecutive months before that where the economy was losing jobs. So for the first time, we had some job creation in a long time. Now we've seen some good unemployment claims. So, let's hope this is the start of the real turnaround.

SAN MIGUEL: So, when it comes to the holidays season for the retailers, and anybody out there, are they expecting to hire more people soon?

CHALLENGER: This is the time when many retailers are gearing up. They've got to get their people on board now. Certainly their core people, to train them, to get them prepared for the season. So it's a very good time to be looking for a job if you want a retail one during the holliday season.

SAN MIGUEL: But hAre there any factors for this particular holiday season with the economy that we have? Are there going to be some employers who are going to be willing to let their employees work longer hours during the Christmas rush? Hours that may go -- may have gone to other temporary workers?

CHALLENGER: Certainly employers in the retail world are going to be cautious this time around. They don't know whether the economy is going to rebound. There are some signals that perhaps consumer spending is going to be strong. So they know they want to be able to gear up. But the first thing they'll do before hiring workers and not be able to use them, is ask their people to work longer hours. They'll have them do many different kinds of jobs perhaps within the establishment before they create the jobs that everybody's looking for.

SAN MIGUEL: What about the people that were laid off, the former experienced workers? Is there a chance they could be called back because they may already know the systems involved in some of these retailing or some of these companies that they may be called back for the holiday rush?

CHALLENGER: That's one of the first places good retailers go is go through their lists of people who have already worked for them. They already know the systems. They can get and up running quickly.

So those people have a leg up over the people now who are unemployed who might be saying, it's been tough out there this year, maybe I'll take a retail job to get some extra money in during the holidays, get some discounts on the goods at the store that I like to go to.

SAN MIGUEL: And we're not just talking retailers. There could be manufacturing -- folks getting ready for productivity demand coming during the holidays, right?

CHALLENGER: There are a host of jobs are. People think retail, but there are shipping jobs. We saw one of the big shipping companies that was going to hire -- this is UPS -- is going to hire 40,000 delivery helpers during the holiday season. There are also warehouse jobs, merchandising jobs, customer service kinds of positions. So there are a lot of things you can do because of the boom that goes on during the holiday season.

SAN MIGUEL: Any parts of the country looking better than others?

CHALLENGER: Probably not really in terms of retail. Right now the story I think is there are more online shoppers every year. That means more packages being sent. That can go almost anywhere.

SAN MIGUEL: We'll see how it goes. It's going to be right around the corner here. John Challenger of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas. Thanks for your time, we appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Approaches>


Aired October 12, 2003 - 16:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Finding work isn't easy these days. As the holiday season approaches many job seekers may have better luck, at least on a temporary basis. So when is the best time to look for seasonal jobs? How about right now?
Today's "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" gives the front page of their job section to the search for seasonal employment. And they are not alone. John Challenger of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas joins me from Chicago. He's a workplace trends analyst. And some in the business world say he is the work place trends analyst. John, good to see you again. Thanks for your time today.

JOHN CHALLENGER, WORKPLACE TRENDS ANALYST: Thanks so much, Renay.

SAN MIGUEL: Before we talk about the seasonal aspects, let me get your take on what we've heard the last couple of weeks. This week's claims numbers better than expected. And then the week before that, the non-farm payrolls being a little better than expected. I realize these do not a trend make. Are you seeing signs maybe this jobless recovery could be over?

CHALLENGER: Well, certainly it's a start. We've seen seven consecutive months before that where the economy was losing jobs. So for the first time, we had some job creation in a long time. Now we've seen some good unemployment claims. So, let's hope this is the start of the real turnaround.

SAN MIGUEL: So, when it comes to the holidays season for the retailers, and anybody out there, are they expecting to hire more people soon?

CHALLENGER: This is the time when many retailers are gearing up. They've got to get their people on board now. Certainly their core people, to train them, to get them prepared for the season. So it's a very good time to be looking for a job if you want a retail one during the holliday season.

SAN MIGUEL: But hAre there any factors for this particular holiday season with the economy that we have? Are there going to be some employers who are going to be willing to let their employees work longer hours during the Christmas rush? Hours that may go -- may have gone to other temporary workers?

CHALLENGER: Certainly employers in the retail world are going to be cautious this time around. They don't know whether the economy is going to rebound. There are some signals that perhaps consumer spending is going to be strong. So they know they want to be able to gear up. But the first thing they'll do before hiring workers and not be able to use them, is ask their people to work longer hours. They'll have them do many different kinds of jobs perhaps within the establishment before they create the jobs that everybody's looking for.

SAN MIGUEL: What about the people that were laid off, the former experienced workers? Is there a chance they could be called back because they may already know the systems involved in some of these retailing or some of these companies that they may be called back for the holiday rush?

CHALLENGER: That's one of the first places good retailers go is go through their lists of people who have already worked for them. They already know the systems. They can get and up running quickly.

So those people have a leg up over the people now who are unemployed who might be saying, it's been tough out there this year, maybe I'll take a retail job to get some extra money in during the holidays, get some discounts on the goods at the store that I like to go to.

SAN MIGUEL: And we're not just talking retailers. There could be manufacturing -- folks getting ready for productivity demand coming during the holidays, right?

CHALLENGER: There are a host of jobs are. People think retail, but there are shipping jobs. We saw one of the big shipping companies that was going to hire -- this is UPS -- is going to hire 40,000 delivery helpers during the holiday season. There are also warehouse jobs, merchandising jobs, customer service kinds of positions. So there are a lot of things you can do because of the boom that goes on during the holiday season.

SAN MIGUEL: Any parts of the country looking better than others?

CHALLENGER: Probably not really in terms of retail. Right now the story I think is there are more online shoppers every year. That means more packages being sent. That can go almost anywhere.

SAN MIGUEL: We'll see how it goes. It's going to be right around the corner here. John Challenger of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas. Thanks for your time, we appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Approaches>