Dive Summary:

• The employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. believes that U.S. retail hires for the holiday season will be down as much as 6.9% in 2013, as compared with 2012.
• The firm anticipates 700,000 temporary staff this year being hired at retail this year, a figure that falls from 751,800 last year.
• Wal-Mart plans to boost its holiday hiring by 10% to 55,000 temporary workers this year, while Target Corp. plans to take on 70,000 workers, 20% fewer than in 2012.

From the article:

... The forecast signals retailers are approaching the holiday season with caution after second-quarter results at companies from Macy’s Inc. to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. showed shoppers were restraining purchases on non-essential items. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment this month fell to the lowest level since April. ...