As the holiday shopping season nears, major companies are already competing to attract potential workers from a limited workforce. With COVID-19 still a threat, experts say workers are particularly hesitant to return to jobs that expose them to the masses. Because the labor shortage is so extreme, workers can afford to be pickier.

In a holiday shopping season forecast released last month, the National Retail Federation predicted “retailers will hire between 500,000 and 665,000 seasonal workers”. The federation says “that compares with 486,000 seasonal hires in 2020.”

“Some of this hiring may have been pulled into October as many retailers encouraged households to shop early to avoid a lack of inventory and shipping delays,” the federation said in its forecast. “With the earlier start retailers have announced thousands of open positions in brick-and-mortar stores and warehouse and distribution centers.”

Some of the companies looking to hire more workers include:

• Macy’s: Looking to hire 76,000 additional workers, offering $500 referral bonuses
• Walmart: Looking to hire 150,000 additional workers, offering some new workers $17/hour and free college tuition
• Amazon: Looking to hire 150,000 additional workers, offering free tuition, giving signing bonuses as high as $3,000

The labor shortage is not the only issue retail companies have to deal with. Supply chain concerns have threatened the holiday shopping season for weeks now.

“Retailers are making significant investments in their supply chains and spending heavily to ensure they have products on their shelves to meet this time of exceptional consumer demand,” National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew Shay said last month.

The workers will be needed for a holiday shopping season the federation says “has the potential to shatter previous records”. In that same forecast, the federation said “holiday sales during November and December will grow between 8.5 percent and 10.5 percent over 2020 to between $843.4 billion and $859 billion”.

“There is considerable momentum heading into the holiday shopping season,” Shay said. “Consumers are in a very favorable position going into the last few months of the year as income is rising and household balance sheets have never been stronger.”