(Bloomberg) -- Home Depot Inc. said it plans to hire 25% more workers for its critical spring season, a goal made all the more difficult by a tight labor market for retailers.
To combat the dearth of workers, the retailer has sped up the application process so it can make an offer within a day of receiving an application. The company declined to share how it’s making quicker hiring decisions. In the past, an applicant waited about five days to hear back.
“We know that the same things that are important to our consumers are important to job seekers -- speed, simplicity and controlling the experience to fit their schedule,” Eric Schelling, Home Depot’s vice president of global talent acquisition, said in an emailed statement.
The chain aims to hire 100,000 associates for part-time and full-time positions, an increase from about 80,000 the past several years. In a sign of the times, the company is also holding a virtual job fair this month.
Home Depot’s revenue has surged during the Covid-19 pandemic as social distancing pushed Americans to shift discretionary spending to their properties from entertainment and travel. But hiring the labor needed to maintain that level of sales may be difficult. Virus fears, lack of child care and robust savings narrowed the unemployment rate to 3.9% in December -- the lowest of the Covid era.
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