Wall Street Journal (09/18/12) Karen Talley

Temporary holiday hiring will be up by more than 10% year-over-year at Kohl’s, but down slightly at Target, giving a mixed picture of the holiday hiring outlook. Target says that although it intends to add fewer temporary staff this year, 30% of its 2011 seasonal employees were retained by the company for full-year jobs.

Retail industry chief financial officers expect a 3.6% increase in same-store sales for the second half of 2012, in line with their 3.5% projection from a year ago, based on a survey by BDO USA. Therefore, 57% of the retailers surveyed by Hay Group plan to hire the same number of seasonal employees as last year, while 43% intend to use more permanent employees this holiday season than temporary ones, up from 19% a year ago.