Holiday season starting with worker shortage

BELLINGHAM -- Help Wanted. We’re Hiring. Join Our Team. It seems no retailer this holiday season is as staffed up as they want to be.

“Everyone needs more help,” said Bill Rennie, Vice-President of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts (RAM). “No one can really get the help they need.”

RAM doesn’t know how many holiday jobs in Massachusetts remain unfilled -- but potentially, it could be thousands. Retail is, after all, the largest job sector in the state, employing about a quarter of the workforce. But finding those workers has been a challenge for more than two years now, Rennie said.

“There’s tremendous competition for the few employees available,” he said.

Pay and benefits have risen to attract more workers, but Rennie said, by and large, those workers are just not coming. And that’s putting stress on everyone who IS working. “Current employees are being asked to do more,” he said. “Owners themselves are being asked to do more. It’s been a real problem.”

The Paper Store, a Massachusetts-based retail chain, set a goal of hiring some 2,000 seasonal workers for its nearly 100 stores.

“We often refer to December at The Paper Store as our Super Bowl,” said Sara Carbonier, Vice-President of Stores. While the chain hasn’t won its Super Bowl yet, Carbonier said they’re just a few hundred hires from their goal. And these are hires, she said, hopefully for the long term.

“Anytime we hire people for the holiday season our goal is to retain as many of them as possible,” she said.

That could be tough. Competition for retail workers has been intense for years. And now, with customer volume set to soar, retailers are bracing for the stress.

“Customers can be fed up waiting in lines or in traffic,” Rennie said. “Hopefully we’re going to see a lot of patience out there. All these employees have been working hard for a few years now. They’re there to serve you, the customer. We should treat them with respect.”

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