Dive Brief:
- Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. plans to hire more than 11,000 seasonal workers for the 2026 holiday season across its subsidiary of brands, the company said in a Thursday press release. The number of seasonal hires is around 20% lower than last year.
- The company wants to bring on about 8,400 seasonal employees across its Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dick’s House of Sport, Going Going Gone and Public Lands stores. It also anticipates hiring 2,900 seasonal workers for its Foot Locker, Kid’s Foot Locker, WSS and Champs Sports stores in North America.
- The retailer will host its ninth annual “National Signing Day” on Wednesday, where interviews are conducted on-site and candidates can meet store managers at participating locations. The company will continue to hire until positions are filled.
Dive Insight:
Though the busiest retail season of the year is rapidly approaching, Dick’s Sporting Goods is hiring fewer workers than last year. Not long after acquiring Foot Locker, Dick’s Sporting Goods set out to hire 14,000 store associates for the 2025 holiday season.
Dick’s Sporting Goods may not be the only retailer pulling back on seasonal hiring. This year, U.S. retailers are forecast to add 450,000 new positions in Q4, down 2.5% from a year earlier, according to predictive data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Not many companies are publicizing their headcounts so far, and the pattern suggests that retailers are planning to lean on existing staff and on-demand pools, the firm observed.
“Almost every hiring announcement we’ve seen in the last three years is smaller and more surgical than the pre-pandemic playbook,” Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a recent statement.
Meanwhile, another report suggests that seasonal hiring might remain in line with last year’s patterns. The National Retail Federation predicts that retailers will hire between 325,000 and 375,000 seasonal staffers, compared to the estimated 356,000 seasonal positions filled last year. Economic factors such as inflation, elevated gas prices, rising interest rates and increasing consumer debt are pushing retailers to be cautious, the trade group said in a report released Thursday.
Dick’s Sporting Goods recently lowered its full-year outlook for Foot Locker. The company expects Foot Locker’s comps to be down as much as 2%, compared to previous expectations for 1.5% to 3% growth. It also expects the brand to have an operating loss of $40 million to $80 million, compared to previous expectations of a profit of $110 million to $150 million.
Dick’s Sporting Goods in Q2 overall reported net sales surged 53.2% year over year to $5.6 billion, while net income dropped 17% from a year earlier to $315 million.
