Snagajob October Hourly Hiring Report shows sluggish holiday hiring
October 2025 Hourly Hiring Report: Where Employers Are Gaining Momentum Amid a Federal Data Freeze
With the U.S. federal government still shut down, the industry is once again operating without the monthly BLS Employment Situation Report. But hiring decisions must continue, especially during one of the busiest seasons of the year.
Fortunately, Snagajob and JobGet’s combined marketplace activity gives us one of the clearest real-time windows into the hourly economy. Below, we break down October’s job posting trends, highlight industries accelerating into peak season, and help employers understand where competition — and opportunity — is rising most.
October 2025 Industry Job Posting Trends
Overall Job Posting Activity: Stable, With a Subtle Upshift
Across all industries, total job postings in October increased 0.30% month over month, holding near September levels. On the surface, this stability may feel uneventful — but inside the major categories that drive holiday hiring, there’s meaningful movement.
Key themes this month:
Seasonal logistics and customer-facing roles are surging.
Some early-fall spikes (Personal Care, Education) are cooling.
Healthcare and Admin-heavy categories continue steady upward momentum.
Work-at-Home and gig-adjacent roles dipped after September highs.
Combined with third-party indicators — including strong consumer spending reports, steady corporate earnings, and news outlets noting elevated seasonal staffing plans among national retailers, carriers, and hospitality chains — October signals a continued need for frontline hiring agility.
Industries Seeing the Strongest Month-over-Month Growth
Several categories showed meaningful expansion in job postings during October:
Warehouse & Production — +28.98% MoM
The biggest mover of the month. Seasonal inventory turnover, e-commerce prep, and pre-holiday shipping demand are driving a rapid spike in open roles. Many employers are starting earlier this year, anticipating higher labor competition in November.
Tip for Hiring Managers:
Simplify your application flow. Even shaving a minute or two off your process dramatically boosts conversion during high-intent seasonal search periods.
Customer Service — +10.62% MoM
Customer Service continues its fall climb, supported by retail, CPG, and logistics organizations expanding omnichannel customer support teams ahead of the peak shopping season.
Tip:
If you’re cross-training workers between customer service and retail, highlight flexibility and weekly pay — these benefits outperform traditional incentives in Q4 job seeker surveys.
Retail — +5.40% MoM
Traditional holiday hiring is underway — but the increases are more evenly distributed this year, suggesting longer lead times instead of a November sprint.
Tip:
Promote shift flexibility. “Flexible hours” remains the top keyword searched by hourly job seekers going into holiday hiring.
Healthcare — +3.58% MoM
Steady growth aligned with broad macro reports showing ongoing staffing needs in outpatient, home health, and senior care settings.
Tip:
Use role clarity in postings — clear shift expectations reduce applicant drop-off for care-related roles.
Sales & Marketing — +3.68% MoM
While not a traditional hourly category, many employers are ramping up for seasonal outreach, in-store promotions, brand ambassador roles, and product demos.
Industries Cooling After Early Fall Spikes
These categories saw notable MoM decreases:
Personal Care & Services — –17.54%
The sharpest decline this month as back-to-school and early autumn wellness traffic tapers off. This is a typical seasonal normalization, not a downturn.
Transportation — –5.80%
A softening after a long period of expansion. Many companies staffed up aggressively in Q3 and slowed new postings in early October.
Hotel & Hospitality — –6.96%
A predictable transition out of peak travel season — though several major travel publications report strong booking pipelines for the winter holidays, suggesting demand will return.
Food & Restaurant — –3.19%
Restaurant roles dipped slightly despite strong year-over-year growth — likely reflecting earlier hiring surges rather than waning demand.
The Big Picture: What Employers Should Expect in November and December
Even without BLS data, trends from private-sector reports, major retailers’ earnings calls, and Snagajob/JobGet posting activity all point to:
A tighter labor market for frontline and logistics roles
Especially Warehouse, Customer Service, and Retail. Expect competition to increase further in November.
Candidate expectations continue to shift toward flexibility and speed
Industries offering fast onboarding, instant scheduling, and transparent pay information saw the highest apply rates across the marketplace.
Transportation’s slowdown is temporary — demand will rebound before Black Friday
Most large carriers historically ramp hiring again in early November.
Hospitality will pick up again mid-holiday season. Travel publications and hospitality analytics firms are reporting higher-than-normal winter reservation volumes.
What hiring managers should do right now.
Whether you’re a retailer, a logistics company, a healthcare provider, or a staffing agency, here’s how to compete effectively through the end of Q4:
Shorten your apply flow. More completed applications = more interviews = faster holiday hiring.
Lead with flexibility and guaranteed hours. The top drivers of job seeker decisions are still schedule control and stability, especially for multi-job workers.
Promote early-start seasonal roles. Workers want to lock in holiday income now, not in late November.
Consider shift bundling or weekly pay. Both continue to outperform signing bonuses in hourly job seeker engagement.
Bottom line
Despite the absence of traditional federal labor data, the hourly economy remains active and resilient. October’s job postings show a marketplace that is preparing for a major seasonal push — one that will reward employers who act early, hire decisively, and streamline their processes.
As the hourly expert, Snagajob is here to help with your hiring needs. Contact our team today to learn more about our solutions for enterprise, mid-size, and small businesses.
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