Workers, especially retail and service-industry workers, have a lot of options these days. Wages have gone up, with many companies paying at least $15 an hour to start which has largely happened due to the current national labor shortage.
There are currently 0.6 available workers for every current job opening, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That's the fewest workers looking for jobs per available opening since 2006 (as long as the BLS goes back to).
That's the environment facing Home Depot (HD) as it tries to hire 100,000 seasonal workers across its stores and warehouses over the next few weeks. That total is up from the normal 80,000 workers the company hires for its busy spring season.
The home improvement company faces a daunting task -- it's hard to hire any workers let alone seasonal employees -- but Home Depot has a plan to hire the employees it needs for its busy spring season.
Image source: Shutterstock
How Is Home Depot Planning to Hire 100,000 Seasonal Workers?
Home Depot is initiating an accelerated hiring process that will feature next-day job offers for some applicants. The company said its hiring flexible, full-time, and part-time positions in customer service, sales, store support, freight, merchandising, and warehouse associates.
Home Depot will also offer various incentives to attract workers, including upskilling programs, tuition reimbursement, a cash bonus program, and discounted stock purchases.
"In today's climate, jobseekers are shopping for the best opportunity," Eric Schelling, Home Depot's vice president of global talent acquisition, said in a statement. “At The Home Depot, they’ll find a company that offers much more than a job and a paycheck."
Home Depot hosts a Virtual Spring Career Day event on Wed., Feb. 16 to "help jobseekers find the right role for them and learn about growth opportunities once they join The Home Depot.," according to the company.
Read More: Walmart Makes a Move to Challenge Home Depot
Home Depot Faces a Challenging Hiring Environment
Employers are in a tough place following the so-called great resignation period over the past couple of quarters.
Companies cut jobs in January for the first time in more than a year as private payrolls fell by 301,000 for the month. That drop is compared to Dow Jones estimate for growth of 200,000.
Those cuts did not come because employers don't need workers. They were made because it's pointless to advertise more jobs when people aren't applying for the ones you already have listed.
Most of the decline in the month came from the leisure and hospitality industry, which is the most sensitive to the surge in cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. The industry saw payrolls drop 154,000 in the month.
The Pandemic Has Been Good to Home Depot
Consumers spent a lot of the pandemic in their homes, leading many to remodel their living spaces over the past two years.
Home Depot and rival Lowe's (LOW) have benefitted from the circumstance with Home Depot seeing its profit jump nearly 15% between fiscal 2020 and 2021 while its revenue rose to $132 billion in 2021 from $110 billion in 2020.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect Home Depot's profit this fiscal year to jump to $15.47 per share from $11.94 per share last year. Revenue is expected to climb to $150 billion.
