Need a little extra spending money for the holidays? Twenty-three percent of hiring managers say they are recruiting for holiday positions, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey. Nearly one-in-four expect to pay their seasonal hires more than last year, with 37 percent offering $10 or more per hour. The CareerBuilder.com survey, "Holiday Jobs," was completed in September and included 1,150 hiring managers nationwide.

Comparing this year to last, 13 percent of hiring managers plan to add the same amount of seasonal employees while 5 percent plan to hire more. Another 5 percent will add employees, but on a smaller scale than 2005. Of those hiring, 86 percent are likely to treat holiday employment as an extended job interview and offer permanent positions to some seasonal employees.


Twenty-four percent of hiring managers plan to raise hourly wages for seasonal hires compared to last year, while 70 percent expect no change in pay scales. Six percent say the seasonal pay will be lower than last year. One- in-ten hiring managers expect to shell out $16 or more per hour, while 33 percent expect to pay $8 to $9 per hour and 31 expect to pay $7 or less per hour.


So, where can you find a seasonal gig? CareerBuilder.com identified the following hot spots for holiday jobs:

- Retail - stores are in need of extra sales clerks and stockers to handle peak shopping periods
- Hospitality - hotels and resorts are looking for ski instructors, restaurant servers and hotel clerks to help out in the busy travel season
- Customer Service - companies augment their customer service staff to handle increased gift orders and returns
- Delivery - package delivery companies hire more drivers and support staff to handle heavier holiday shipments
- Office Support - businesses need temps to help out with end of the year wrap-ups and fill in for vacationing workers


"Workers interested in seasonal positions should act fast," said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.com. "The vast majority of hiring managers are already recruiting for seasonal positions and nearly half are filling their open positions in two weeks or less."

Haefner offers the following tips for landing seasonal work:
1) Be flexible - 28 percent of hiring managers surveyed say the biggest turnoff when considering a seasonal job candidate is his/her refusal to work certain hours
2) Be enthusiastic - a lack of holiday spirit can impair your chances of getting hired, according to 26 percent of those surveyed
3) Be serious - 19 percent of hiring managers are turned off by individuals who don't treat the position as a real job and don't take the responsibilities seriously
4) Be smart - a failure to be knowledgeable about the company or product line is a major pet peeve for 8 percent of hiring managers looking to fill seasonal positions.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 1,150 hiring managers, ages 18 and over, within the United States between August 31 and September 5, 2006. The 'Employer' segment was weighted by number of employees to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. The segment was weighted using propriety algorithms in order to align the online population to be more representative demographically and behaviorally of the total population of online and offline employers.


With a pure probability sample of 1,150, one could say with a 95 percent probability, that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 4 percentage points. Sampling error for data from subsamples would be higher and would vary. However, that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.