Why your festive hiring strategy should start soon…

In this blog, we look at why festive hiring is one of the most competitive recruitment moments of the year, what last year's seasonal hiring data tells us about talent behaviour, how top retailers approached their festive campaigns, and the steps you can take now to get ahead of the rush, even if you're starting later than you'd like.

Just like consumer campaigns, festive hiring is the most competitive time of year for retail employers. Major brands are all fighting for the same pool of seasonal workers to keep stores running and service standards high.

Last year (2025), the scale was enormous. Amazon hired over 15,000 seasonal workers, Tesco hired 26,600, Aldi added 4,500, M&S brought on 11,000, and Sainsbury's and Argos recruited 19,000 between them. Add it up, and you're looking at roughly 76,000 people, which, for perspective, is the size of a sold-out Old Trafford stadium.

Sainsbury's was first out the gate last year, announcing on 6th October 2025. This year, John Lewis has already announced 10,400 Christmas roles on 7th September 2026, a full month earlier than Sainsbury's moved last year – showing how competitive this period is.

According to Indeed, last year's seasonal job searches were the strongest since 2018. October searches for Christmas jobs made up 0.8% of all UK searches on Indeed, up 28% on the same period in 2024.

Cost of living is playing an obvious role here. 1.28 million people in the UK (3.7% of the employed workforce) now hold a second job, with women more likely than men to hold one, and the 50–64 age bracket the most over-indexed group. This trend is consistent across London and the rest of the UK.

Of those holding a second job, 55% cite hitting financial goals as their main reason, followed by feeling their main pay isn't fair (17%) and a lack of career progression (13%). Zooming out further, 46% of UK adults now have some form of side hustle in 2026, up from 39% in 2025, a rise of almost a fifth in a single year, again driven mainly by day-to-day living costs.

The most in-demand seasonal job titles on Indeed (Aug–Oct 2025) were:

Retail, in-store and sales roles dominate, which tells you exactly where the competition for talent is fiercest.

Just like consumer marketing, festive hiring campaigns need planning that starts months out, ideally back in July, to make headlines, reach talent early, and avoid a last-minute scramble. Here's how some of the big names approached their paid social last year:

Lidl ran multiple "Seasonal Hiring" ads and led with pay, sitting just under Aldi, the best-paying retailer at £13.50 an hour.

Aldi took a sharper approach: one spotlight post, amplified with paid spend, calling out their pay rise directly. It put their clearest USP (pay) straight in front of the audience that cares most about it.

Sainsbury's and Argos ran pre-hire campaigns, building talent pools ahead of the hiring period so candidates could sign up for job alerts across in-store and driver roles before the rush even began.

We worked with Tesco on their festive hiring strategy last year, starting with research to understand exactly where Tesco sat in the market. We supported hiring 265,000 people across 722 stores in the UK and Ireland. The creative leaned into festive puns and seasonal cheer, which we believe helped drive that success. See more about the Tesco campaign here.

You are never the only one hiring this time of year, so to stand out, you need to give candidates a reason to choose you over the retailer next door.

If pay isn't something you can compete on, look elsewhere:

At Wiser, we're always looking to push the boundaries creatively while making sure we hit our clients' hiring goals. If you're late to the seasonal rush and need support building a campaign that cuts through, let's talk.