Without seasonal workers from temporary employment, many gift tables are likely to remain empty

Christmas is just around the corner. Not only in supermarkets, where speculoos and dominoes have taken over the sales areas. A look at the job boards also shows that Christmas is approaching, because many industries are looking for seasonal workers. The Internet department store Amazon reports 13,000 vacancies nationwide. Gingerbread bakers in Nuremberg have already increased their staffing levels. Marzipan manufacturers on the Bay of Lübeck are under constant stress. Traffic on the roads is increasing because the goods have to be delivered to the stores or directly to the customers. There is a boom in trade, production and logistics.

Opportunities for additional earnings and re-entry

Gerhard Wach, owner of the nationwide personnel service provider Franz & Wach, also senses this: "Many companies have been looking for temporary and seasonal workers for months. The job boards are filled with offers. Where their own efforts do not bear fruit, we are called in." Personnel service providers such as Franz & Wach specialize in the search for applicants and also have the capacity to sift through hundreds of applications at short notice, conduct interviews and select suitable candidates. Whether these candidates are then hired out as temporary employees or hired directly by the company looking for them for the months in question varies.

His employees certainly have their hands full at the moment. With an empty applicant market, many companies are experiencing staff shortages. This opens up opportunities for those who are now seeking employment. These include traditional students who finance their studies themselves. But also housewives or part-time employees are increasingly contacting temporary employment agencies. They want to use this time of year to fill their own coffers with extra income. And of course, this labor market bottleneck is now also offering many refugees and people returning to work the chance to finally find a job.

Orders increase with the cold

As soon as the temperatures drop in the next few days, the situation will get even worse. Experience has shown that sales of classic winter articles will then rise sharply. This applies to gingerbread and mulled wine as well as to ski boots and winter tires. "And then our telephone does not stand still any longer" Gerhard Wach looks forward to the rising demand. Why he is confident that he will be able to meet most of the requests is due to the fact that temporary employment has become increasingly attractive for seasonal workers in recent years. "We now have hourly wages that are well above the minimum wage and in the vast majority of cases are also just as high as they would be for a seasonal job via the employing company. In addition, because of our customer structure, we can offer applicants various options and thus accommodate their wishes, for example, for specific shift or assignment times."

Cost advantage for hirer

But wouldn't it be more advantageous for the employing company to hire the applicants themselves on a temporary basis? "No," says HR professional Wach, "because a company that hires 25 more seasonal workers now, for example, also has to create additional resources in the HR department for this temporary period." Expensive job ads would have to be placed, incoming applications processed, interviews conducted, applicants accepted or rejected. Once seasonal employees are on board, personnel files have to be created, time records checked and additional payrolls prepared. "The cost of these additional tasks is so high that it's often cheaper to turn to temporary staffing. And when you see that the entire industry makes its highest sales in the 4th quarter of the year, it's easy to imagine that some gift tables would remain empty if there were no temporary workers," says Gerhard Wach.