NEW YORK (Reuters) -Retail-related job postings, including hospitality, retail shops and food services, dropped 16% in October compared to last year, according to the Indeed Hiring Lab, a concerning sign for the spending outlook for the important holiday shopping season.

The retail hiring slump falls below pre-pandemic levels for seasonal hiring, providing an inkling into U.S. retailers' demand expectations for the holiday season. 

Notably, publicly traded retailers are making fewer announcements of their holiday hiring plans than in the past. The nation's largest retailer Walmart and rival Target have not announced seasonal hiring plans for 2025, although they made statements in previous years. Burlington Stores, which planned to hire more than 24,000 workers last holiday season, declined to comment on this year's hiring goals. 

Retailers may restrain hiring due to added burdens of tariffs, sagging consumer sentiment and the 41-day U.S. government shutdown, said Indeed Hiring Lab senior economist Daniel Culbertson. Consumer sentiment hit a three-and-a-half-year low in early November, according to the University of Michigan's November survey. 

Amazon in October announced that it is hiring 250,000 seasonal workers for the third straight year. Catalyst Brands, which owns Aéropostale and JCPenney, said in October that it will hire 13,000 seasonal employees. JCPenney alone onboarded nearly 10,000 seasonal workers in 2024. 

"We have heard feedback from various retailers that this year; they felt like their staffing levels are adequate," National Retail Federation chief economist Mark Mathews said. He said that retailers are seeing fewer people voluntarily quit their jobs, making holiday hiring less necessary. The NRF expects retailers to hire between 265,000 and 365,000 seasonal workers this year, compared to 442,000 in 2024.

"What we've seen is a lot fewer retailers go public and state that they're going to hire 'X' amount of people," Mathews said, noting that those companies may decide to add staffing later in the season after taking "a bit of a 'wait and see' approach."

U.S. employers shed more than 11,000 jobs a week through late October, according to payroll processor ADP.

(Editing by Alistair Bell)