Bath & Body Works has great news for consumers, economy | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

It’s been a really strange year for retail. While some major players are still going strong, others have succumbed to bankruptcy due to a host of factors, including:

Persistent inflation
Changing consumer behavior
Inventory and financial challenges

Since January, consumers have had to say goodbye to some of their favorite retailers as bankruptcies and store closures have flooded the market. These include:

Claire’s
Forever 21
Joann
Rite Aid

It’s for this reason that the upcoming holiday season will be so crucial for retailers.

Retailers commonly see a huge uptick in sales during the holiday season – a season that has, in recent years, been starting increasingly earlier.

But some retail experts worry that this year’s holiday shopping season will be a gigantic letdown. And that’s bad news for the economy as a whole.

Bath & Body Works has great news for consumers and the economy.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Retail seasonal hiring to slow this year

Many of us remember the days when holiday shopping started right after Thanksgiving. Now, it’s common for retailers to begin promoting holiday sales as early as October.

It’s also common for retailers to line up seasonal help well ahead of the holiday boom to ensure that they’re able to meet customer demand. But initial reports indicate that a holiday shopping slowdown may be coming.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports that retailers may be looking to hire under 500,000 workers during the last three months of 2025. If that projection is correct, it would mark the smallest seasonal gain in 16 years.

That’s not just bad news for people seeking seasonal work, though. It’s also bad news for the broad economy.

As it is, the U.S. economy added only 22,000 nonfarm positions in August. At a time when unemployment is ticking upward and consumers are guarding their money carefully due to persistent inflation, there’s real concern that this year’s holiday shopping season could be a huge disappointment.

That could, in turn, fuel a huge wave of retail bankruptcies and store closures for 2026.

Bath & Body Works is bucking the trend

While seasonal hiring is expected to slow in the coming months, Bath & Body Works is planning to go on a huge hiring spree. The company shared that it plans to hire more than 30,000 seasonal associates this year across its retail locations.

Seasonal workers at Bath & Body Works get to enjoy perks such as:

Competitive wages
A 40% discount on Bath & Body Works purchases
Flexible scheduling

Plus, the company said that some of its seasonal employees may be eligible to pivot into full-time roles once the holidays are over.

At a time when things seem rather bleak in the world of retail, it’s encouraging to see that Bath & Body Works is thriving.

It’s also worth noting that a decline in seasonal hiring may not be as dire as some experts are making it out to be.

“A lot of retailers are cutting back on seasonal help this year, but that has been a trend at major players where they have opted to give existing staff more hours and even overtime rather than training new workers only to lose them in a few months,” says retail expert and TheStreet Co-Editor-in-Chief Daniel Kline.

More Retail:

Kline also isn’t surprised to see Bath & Body Works ramping up on seasonal hiring.

“I think Bath & Body Works falls in the affordable indulgence category, which does well in tougher times,” he said. “People may hold off on trips or big-ticket items, but they feel good buying smaller luxury items.”

In addition to boosting holiday hiring, Bath & Body Works is also expanding onto college campuses. The company intends to sell its products at more than 600 campus stores. It’s a sign that U.S. consumers still have some discretionary room in their budgets, provided they see the value in the items they’re buying.