Dive Brief:

• Macy’s is continuing the current holiday hiring trend in retail, announcing Monday that it plans to hire fewer temporary holiday workers overall. More of those hires will be dedicated to its e-commerce operations than last year.

• The retailer said that Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, call centers, and distribution and fulfillment centers will together have some 85,000 positions to fill for the holidays, down slightly from 86,000 last year.

• The hold-steady approach comes as the retailer is working to better respond to shifting consumer tastes and habits, including scaling back under-performing stores..

Dive Insight:

Retailers, including Macy’s, are keeping their holiday hiring to roughly last year’s levels or a bit less, despite an early Shoppertrak estimate that holiday spending will see 2.4% growth. 

While the overall number of holiday hires is fairly steady, the retailer is notably shifting that hiring to e-commerce, from 10,000 last year to 12,000 this year

With mobile and e-commerce strong last year, the department store, like others, is also apparently girding itself for another strong showing on the web.