Do Sweeping Retail Job Cuts Signal a Challenging Seasonal Jobs Market for 2025's Holiday Season?

The retail job market continues to exhibit struggles, according to the most recent Challenger, Gray & Christmas data.

According to the figures, retailers axed 83,656 positions this year, as of the end of August — an uptick of 242% versus retail jobs cut during the same time frame in 2024. Concerning the month of August more specifically, retail shed 3,169 positions in 2025, versus 1,412 the year prior.

“Retailers are being hard hit by tariffs, inflation, and ongoing economic uncertainty causing bankruptcies and closures,” said Andrew Challenger, senior VP and jobs expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “If tariffs and consumer spending constraints play out, the approaching holiday shopping season may see fewer seasonal hires and, in fact, high layoffs.”

Overall, macroeconomic concerns ("market and economic conditions") as well as the closure of stores, units, or plants were most pertinent reasons cited as being behind the bulk of retail job losses. Automation, specifically concerning the rise and implementation of AI, was also brought forth as a significant pressure on jobs, more broadly, as were DOGE cuts — although the latter may not have held as much bearing on private sector retail positions.

Things may not bode well for September's numbers in terms of anticipated job creation, either, a potential ill omen regarding the upcoming (and very crucial) holiday season for retailers.

“September is typically when we begin to see large seasonal hiring announcements, which foretell how Retailers expect the holiday season to go. Coming off the lowest August on record for hiring plans, it may be a troubling sign,” Challenger added.

The report has at least one emerging data point seemingly reinforcing its pessimistic projections: Bath & Body Works announced the planned hiring of over 30,000 seasonal workers for its stores — a few thousand shy of the ~33,000 seasonal retail workers it was slated to hire for the 2024 holiday season, per Chain Store Age.

Shifting Seasonal Jobs Figures Could Require Deeper Context

One thing to note: According to a Forbes report laying out the details regarding similarly gloomy seasonal jobs figures for 2024, it was noted that several of the jobs lost in retail may have shifted to warehousing and transportation as brick-and-mortar business continues to lose share to e-commerce operations.

“November's decline [2024] in retail employment could reflect holiday shopping shifting from in-person to online,” said Mitchell Barnes, labor economist at The Conference Board, at the time.