Recruiters and staffing agencies: What do you think will happen with seasonal hiring this year?

I'm not so sure about seasonal; the clients we staff for are all temp to hire positions.  I can say that there is definitely a shortage in people!! We have 100's of job openings and no one available for these opportunities. 

I believe this will be dependent on the industry. Certain industries such as healthcare, telecom, essential businesses will need to increase their staff during the holiday season. Accounting/tax firms are still hiring. It's anyone's guess how the election will unfold but I think this will greatly impact the economy and in turn, the hiring ecosystem. My focus is technology and there seems to be lots of opportunity for remote developers, engineers, business analysts, project managers, data scientists/engineers and any telecom related roles because of the increase in implementing video conference platforms, creating successful work from home environments for their employees and staying connected with clients through various technology channels. There may be some slowdown during the holiday season but I've also seen many clients begin the hiring process during the Christmas holiday in order to onboard new employees in January.  

Companies are hiring so the seasonal ranks and employees that typically take those jobs have multiple opportunities to choose from. Most if not all positions are temp to full time so that being said there will be a major shortage of seasonal retail employees available. Full time hiring and parents having to home school will also be a factor in seasonal hiring as those candidates will not be available where in the past they could work during the day while their children are in school. I believe there will continue to be a shortage of viable employees until the unemployment supplements go away and people rejoin the workforce. 

I feel a lot of employers will be using Staffing to help during the holiday season vs hiring people onto their payroll.   Using Staffing helps to ease the following burdens: will not have to sift through resumes, completing all the paperwork,  drug testing, running Criminal Backgrounds, verifying past employment history. During this time we have also provided people to check every person that comes through your door for Covid prevention. Employers will not have the unemployment claims, insurance issues AND if an employee is not performing-they pick up the phone and we will end the assignment. Let Spherion Staffing be our gift to you this season!

My company services many non seasonal clients. We are in need of qualified candidates that want to work. Unemployment benefits are no longer as desirable as they had been ,but we are not seeing the the people return to the workforce. There are positions available with great companies who are taking precautions against the spread of the pandemic.  I believe the Holidays will look different but JOBs are available now. 

I think seasonal hiring will be mixed. There is demand now for non or semi- skilled workers but jobs going unfilled.  We are unable to find qualified candidates.  I read that thousands of people are unemployed but the candidate pool doesn't reflect that. I expect demand to continue to be strong and problematic.                           

I would have to agree with the other two comments.  I believe hiring will continue to become very competitive just as it was prior to COVID-19.  I have been strongly urging clients to take a very proactive approach to recruiting right now as it will take considerable time to find adequate candidates.

The pandemic has had an interesting effect on employment. Those who are still employed, but were open to opportunities prior to it are reticent to listen to new opportunities for fear of losing their jobs. Those who have lost them due to the pandemic are collecting unemployment and are not actively looking. So, oddly enough there is a shortage of qualified candidates for temporary and full-time roles, even in this time of fewer opportunities. I expect seasonal hiring will face challenges in filling roles.

I suspect that Q4 20 will lead to a return of more hiring, but seasonal hiring is questionable as shoppers are more likely to order online this year than ever before, leading to potentially less need for seasonal 'physical' help in retail stores.  This can be hard to predict though, and I have been surprised before...so let's see what happens!

I think the pandemic friendly retailers will continue to do very well through our holiday season.  Retaining employees by providing flexible schedules is one's best way to get covered.  You pretty much need to be a scheduling guru.  If done well though, this creates happy employees who work when they can or want;  to include students, gig workers, retirees and the underemployed.