EmploymentCrossing CEO A. Harrison Barnes believes that the next few months will see a major hiring drive from the retailers as well as restaurants and bars.

Pasadena, CA -- (SBWire) -- 11/03/2010 -- Initial jobless benefits claims were down by 21,000 for the week ending October 23.

434,000 people were first time applicants for jobless benefits. The total number of Americans getting unemployment benefits for two or more weeks declined by 122,000 to a total of 4,356,000.

Economist Mark Price from the Keystone Research Center has cautioned that the initial claims figures are volatile. Earlier reports of falling claims have been proven wrong when data gathered over longer periods has been looked at. A four-week average of initial jobless claims gives a clearer picture of the jobs market.

Most of the hiring in the next few months is expected to come from retailers for the holiday season. Toys R Us and Kohl’s both plan on hiring 45,000 and 40,000 temporary workers respectively. Macy’s is also planning on hiring 65,000 workers over the holiday season. Online retailers are also making plans for a hiring spree to meet increased demand over the next two months. Arise Virtual Solutions, which supports ecommerce sites has plans on hiring 6,000 workers for the customer service centers that it runs for its clients.

EmploymentCrossing CEO A. Harrison Barnes believes that the next few months will see a major hiring drive from the retailers as well as restaurants and bars. “The leisure industry, specially the bars and restaurants are what basically created almost half of the new jobs in September. And these jobs are created all over the country and open to people with all sorts of skill levels.” Barnes’s website, EmploymentCrossing has been able to find over 164,000 jobs in a day. EmploymentCrossing is a job aggregator site.