Wall Street Journal (10/26/14) Eric Morath

With traditional hiring methods failing to generate enough job candidates, retailers essentially are competing with staffing firms by sending customers holiday help-wanted ads through emails, tweets, and other social media posts, alongside gift ideas and free-shipping offers. Such social-media pushes broaden the candidate pool by attracting employees who aren’t actively looking for jobs. However, while the demand for retail workers is exceeding prerecession levels, the need for seasonal hires hasn’t led to increased pay. In September, nonsupervisor retail wages increased 2.1% from a year earlier, similar to the inflation rate.

The National Retail Federation anticipates that companies will match or exceed last year’s level of holiday hires, which would surpass a prerecession peak.