Tomorrow is Black Friday, but on Saturday the Christmas campaign begins, the period of the year in which commerce is most at risk. Then the January sales campaign arrives and the wheel turns again. However, this year, the forecasts are less promising and, given the drop in consumer purchasing power due to inflation, less dynamism is expected in purchases.
This is reflected in the latest analysis by Randstad, which in its hiring forecasts - analyzing the behavior of commerce, hospitality, logistics and transport - foresees that around 38,100 hires will be generated in the Valencian Community. They are 11.6% less than last year's campaign, when 46,163 new employment contracts were signed. A reality that follows the trend forecast for the rest of the Spanish market, as the firm expects that Christmas will generate more than 47,000 hires, 3.5% less than last year's campaign, when 359,950 new employment contracts were signed.
According to the same sources, the only province where an increase in hiring will be recorded in relation to the same dates last year will be Alicante (4.1%), while the signing of new contracts will decrease both in the province of Valencia (20 .7%) as in Castellón (1.4%).
“We will see a boost in hiring in the hospitality sector, which rebounds along with the increase in foreign and local tourism, and slight reductions in commerce and transportation that are more subject to the current economic situation in our country,” says Ana Hervás, regional director of Temporary Work at the eastern and southern area of Randstad.
When the sector was asked about the predictions, it came to confirm the forecast. From the Association of Merchants of the Historic Center of Valencia, for example, which brings together a good part of the Christmas shopping this coming month, they emphasize that hiring will not be excessive because, as normal, they have a hard time finding staff.
Likewise, they explain that for some time now, with the deseasonalization of sales and the emergence of online commerce, purchases "have dispersed" and there are even those who already have their letter to the Three Wise Men ready in the month of November.
From Unió Gremial, an association that brings together dozens of Valencian associations, they add that, although historically at Christmas there is an increase in the workload for the commercial sector, it normally falls on the merchants themselves.
And they emphasize that in those sectors of traditional commerce where the Christmas campaign does have a greater impact, the forecast for this Christmas is to "maintain" the trend of recent years. They assume that there will be a decrease in sales compared to 2022, but they predict that hiring will maintain the same line as each year to meet "the demands and response capacity in these businesses."
