SEATTLE — Amazon said it plans to hire 250,000 workers ahead of the holidays — in line with year-end hiring in each of the past two years — to bolster its fulfillment capabilities for retail’s busiest season.
Seasonal workers will earn an average of $19 an hour, Amazon said. The company is also adding full-time and part-time employees for jobs paying $23 an hour plus benefits.
Digital marketing and media services provider Adobe Inc. projects U.S. online sales will increase 8.4% to $241 billion between November 1 and December 31. Shopping on mobile devices is expected to rise 12.8% year on year and account for 53% of online holiday spending.
Retailers can expect modest increases in holiday sales, according to pre-season forecasts, several of which anticipate that results will vary depending on attributes of a retailer’s core customer.
Most holiday shoppers say they plan to spend about the same as last year, but there is an increase in the number of those planning to spend more, Circana says in its latest annual holiday report.
Gen Z consumers, born from the late 1990s to the early 2010s, stand to be a noticeable outlier this year, slashing their holiday budgets by 23%, consultancy PwC said in its 2025 Holiday Outlook. Gen Z’s spending pullback could lead to a 5% decline in overall holiday spending compared to last year, according to PwC.
Thorvardur de Shong
“The holiday shopping season has been reshaped in recent years, where consumers are making purchases earlier, driven by a stream of discounts that has allowed shoppers to manage their budgets in different ways,” says Vivek Pandya, lead analyst, Adobe Digital Insights. “These discounting patterns are driving material changes in shopping behavior, with certain consumers now trading up to goods that were previously higher-priced.”
Retailers have issued mixed outlooks ahead of the holiday season, Reuters reported, with Target and Best Buy maintaining their annual forecasts, and Macy’s and Walmart raising theirs.
“Holiday 2025 will be full of surprises and challenges — from comparisons to the 2024 election impact and continuous economic uncertainty, to the influence of social media influence and the spirit of the holiday season,” says Marshal Cohen, Circana’s retail advisor.
