Seasonal Jobs Hiring in 2026: Pay, Timing and Getting Kept On

Seasonal hiring is open, but thinner than in past years. Challenger, Gray & Christmas expects retailers to add about 450,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2026, below the 461,500 added in 2025, which was already the smallest seasonal gain since 2008. Parcel carriers, the Postal Service, Macy’s, Michaels and Kohl’s are all posting roles.

There’s work to find, and it goes to the people who apply early and pick the right employer. Which employer pays best? How long does the contract run? Does anyone get kept on? Job boards list thousands of seasonal openings and don’t answer any of those.

The sections ahead sort the big employers on those three questions, so you can decide before you spend an evening on applications. Every figure carries its source and year, and 2025 numbers are labeled as 2025.

Seasonal jobs hiring right now: which employers are the best bet?

Michaels, Macy’s, Kohl’s and the Postal Service have 2026 seasonal roles posted, while UPS, FedEx and Amazon had not published 2026 headcount targets by late September. The best-paying seasonal jobs are driving and parcel roles, and the best bets for staying on are employers that publish conversion figures.

Employers have been slow to put numbers on paper. Challenger’s September 23, 2026 outlook says UPS, FedEx and USPS had not released 2026 targets, and neither had Amazon, Target or Kohl’s. Amazon has reached 250,000 seasonal hires in each of the last three years and normally announces in mid-October, so a quiet September doesn’t mean the jobs are gone.

Retailers are also filling part of the rush with their own staff. Michaels says current team members can take extra holiday hours, and Challenger describes the wider pattern as retailers leaning on automation, existing associates and on-demand pools. What does that mean for you? Fewer net-new seasonal slots, and more applicants chasing each posting.

Pay figures are posted rates from the sources named in each row, not guarantees, and your location and shift change the number. Walmart and Costco appear because people search for them, not because either announced a 2026 seasonal drive.

UPS gets one row because it has its own page. In short, UPS’s careers site says seasonal roles typically run October to December with a set end date, hours can include early-morning or midnight shifts, and a seasonal package delivery driver listing shows $23.00 an hour. Seasonal support drivers use their own vehicles and get mileage reimbursement.

Handler pay, the application steps and how fast offers move are on our UPS seasonal jobs page.

For seasonal jobs near me hiring this week, start with each employer’s own careers page and search by ZIP code. Target, Kohl’s, Michaels and UPS each run a seasonal search there, and Macy’s says pay ranges appear in all of its postings, so you can compare before you apply.

What seasonal pay and hours look like once the shift starts

A posted hourly rate doesn’t tell you much until you know the shift length. FedEx says part-time package handlers work one shift a day, generally 3 to 6 hours, and its casual handler tier is capped at 24 hours a week with no benefits, as laid out in our FedEx package handler pay breakdown.

What does that look like in a paycheck? At the September 2026 posted range of $17.65 to $22.25 an hour, a full 24 hours comes to roughly $424 to $534 a week before taxes, and a 3-hour shift pays far less.

Drivers and postal roles sit higher. The USPS listing for a holiday tractor-trailer operator in Arkansas pays $23.13 an hour, paid bi-weekly, for a temporary non-career stint from October 31 to December 25, 2026, which is eight weeks. Retail floors pay less per hour, with Walmart’s typical entry range at $14 to $19 according to our Walmart starting pay page.

Pay timing differs too. FedEx pays weekly, Kohl’s lists weekly pay, USPS pays bi-weekly, and Macy’s offers earned wage access before the scheduled payday. On a season that lasts eight to ten weeks, a weekly check matters more than you’d expect.

Seasonal wages are taxed like any other paycheck. Your employer withholds based on the W-4 you file, and a job that lasts only a few months can leave withholding out of step with your full-year income, so you might see a refund or a balance due in spring. That’s general background, not tax advice; the IRS or a tax preparer can speak to your situation.

When should you apply for seasonal jobs?

Apply now for warehouse, parcel and postal roles, then plan a second round in October and November for store jobs. Amazon has said its seasonal roles often fill within minutes of posting, while Macy’s holds three nationwide hiring events through November 19, so missing the first retail wave isn’t final.

You’ll hear both “wait” and “apply now” in the same season. Applicants on r/SeasonalWork certainly have, so which one should you follow?

“Yeah, I feel like the advice two months ago was to wait, and now everybody’s saying that it’s already too late. Personally, I just gotta remember that I got this job a week before the season started, so just keep applying.”
– r/SeasonalWork, 2026 (18 upvotes)

The commenter’s last line holds up against the calendar. Michaels held its hiring day on September 12, Macy’s has events on September 24, October 22 and November 19, and the USPS listing starts October 31, so new openings keep appearing from mid-September into late November.

A workable rule: apply the day you see a posting for parcel, warehouse or postal work, because the listed starts begin in late October. For stores, apply in the first wave if you can and keep a second application ready for the October and November events.

Don’t wait for a headcount announcement. Amazon, Target and Kohl’s had issued none as of September 23, and the postings were already live.

Check end dates before you accept. UPS says seasonal roles carry a set end date and typically run October to December, and the USPS listing ends December 25. Amazon said in October 2025 that jobs would be posted through December, which tells you hiring runs late but not when contracts end. Macy’s and Kohl’s didn’t publish end dates in their 2026 announcements, so you’ll want to ask the recruiter for the last scheduled day.

Who gets kept on after the season, and how do you make that list?

The employers that publish conversion numbers show rates from about one third to about one half, but the figures come in different units and different years, so read each one carefully.

• Michaels (September 2026 release): nearly 50% of seasonal in-store positions converted to regular roles after last year’s holidays.
• UPS (October 2020 release): over the prior three years, about one third of people hired for seasonal package handler jobs were later hired permanently. That figure is six years old.
• Target (The Penny Hoarder on Yahoo Finance, September 2026): Target says more than half of its 2024 seasonal team members were offered a chance to stay. Offered isn’t the same as accepted.
• FedEx and Amazon: no current conversion rate in what they’ve published. An Amazon vice president described seasonal roles in October 2025 as, for some people, “the first step in building a new career path,” which is a description rather than a rate.

Read these as a range of what’s possible. Each describes one company in one year, and none says what happens at your building.

Ask early, in the interview or at orientation: what share of last year’s seasonal staff stayed? A recruiter who answers with a number is at an employer that keeps people, and one who dodges tells you something too.

Then make yourself easy to keep. Take the shifts others skip, since Target’s seasonal page says early-morning and overnight hours carry added pay, and volunteering for them gets you noticed. Show up on every scheduled day, because attendance is the one record a manager can check without waiting for a review.

In early December, tell your supervisor you want to stay and ask which year-round openings are coming. A manager can’t plan a spot for you until you’ve said you want one.

What the hiring process asks of you

Seasonal hiring runs through three checkpoints, the interview or assessment, the age line on the posting, and the background check. Each employer handles them a little differently, so here’s where to dig deeper on each one.

Interviews and assessments

Target runs most hourly applicants through six recorded questions before a manager speaks to them, and our Target interview questions page lists them. Amazon’s screening depends on the role: many warehouse applicants get no scored assessment, while corporate roles do, as covered on our Amazon assessment test page. For store managers and warehouse supervisors in general, the most common interview questions and answers cover what they tend to ask.

Age rules

Some retail floors take 16-year-olds, and most warehouse work doesn’t. Walmart and Target hire store team members at 16, Target distribution centers and Sam’s Club require 18, and Costco’s company-wide floor is 18, per our list of jobs that hire at 16. Parcel, warehouse and driving postings typically set 18 as well, so you’ll want to read the age line on each one.

Records and drug screening

Screening usually comes after the offer, which matters if you’ve got a record. Our page on jobs that hire felons explains that most rejections come after a conditional offer, when the background check returns, not at the application stage.

Drug testing is narrower than most people fear. At Walmart, cashier and stocker applicants generally never take one, while CDL drivers and a short list of regulated roles do, as our Walmart drug test breakdown shows. For driving roles, read the requirements section of the posting before you apply.

Seasonal jobs hiring FAQ

When do companies start hiring seasonal workers?

Companies start in September and keep hiring into November. In 2026, Michaels held its hiring day on September 12, Macy’s has events on September 24, October 22 and November 19, and Amazon usually announces its numbers in mid-October.

Which seasonal jobs pay the most?

Driving and parcel roles pay the most in the sources above. A USPS tractor-trailer listing pays $23.13 an hour, a UPS seasonal driver listing shows $23.00, FedEx handlers range from $17.65 to $22.25, Amazon’s 2025 seasonal average was above $19, and Walmart’s typical entry range is $14 to $19.

Do seasonal workers get hired permanently?

Some do, and the rate depends on the employer and the year. Michaels said nearly half of last year’s seasonal in-store positions converted, and UPS said in 2020 that about one third of seasonal package handlers were later hired permanently. Neither number predicts your site.

Can you get a seasonal job at 16?

Sometimes. Many Walmart and Target stores hire at 16, but age varies by location and role, and Costco sets 18. UPS, FedEx and Amazon don’t print a handler minimum age on their role pages, so check each posting. Our page of jobs that hire at 16 has the full list.