Macy's to hire 80,000 temporary workers for holiday season

Macy’s Inc said on Wednesday it would hire 80,000 temporary workers to deal with extra customers shopping in the holiday season.

Last year, the department store chain had hired the same number of temporary workers, before adding 7,000 more in December.

Macy’s has been closing stores, controlling inventory, building its Backstage off-price business and selling or leasing out prime real estate properties to grapple with falling mall foot traffic and online competition.

In the second quarter, the department store operator reported a rise in quarterly same-store sales and also upped its full-year sales and profit forecasts. Overall quarterly sales were lower, though better than analysts had expected. Net income attributable to Macy’s shareholders rose to $166 million in the second quarter ended Aug. 4 from $111 million a year earlier.

Net sales fell 1.1 percent to $5.57 billion, but still topped estimates of $5.55 billion.