· Oct 16, 2025
Cory Stahle argues in Indeed Hiring Lab that holiday jobs are harder to find
Markdown · JSON · Original source
published Cory Stahle’s analysis on October 16, 2025. Stahle argues that holiday job seekers face a more competitive market: searches for seasonal work have risen much faster than seasonal job postings, leaving more workers looking for a pool of jobs that remains below pre-pandemic levels. He says this may make the holiday season tougher for job seekers and a little easier for employers. Stahle reports that searches were up 27% year over year by September 30, while postings had risen only 2.7%. He suggests that workers may be searching earlier to get ahead of competition, as employers show less urgency to hire. The analysis also notes that retail jobs make up most seasonal postings. Its conclusion is about relative opportunity, not the number of jobs any one person will find. Indeed Hiring Lab’s definitions of seasonal postings and searches include holiday-related terms, and the analysis cautions that those definitions change slightly from year to year, making earlier analyses not directly comparable. The figures describe postings and searches on Indeed, not all seasonal work.
Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims.
Original source
· Article
Source details
Original source date: Oct 16, 2025 (2025-10-16).
Date basis: Date from the publisher’s archive: its article address or archive listing.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-11T17:08:23.425Z. First observed: 2026-10-30T23:32:21.546Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-30T23:33:44.549Z.
Referenced by
Recorded citations and public file attachments. A reference alone does not establish agreement or influence.
No public references recorded here yet.
Limits
Text as retrieved on October 30, 2026; originally published October 16, 2025. says its definitions of seasonal job postings and searches change slightly from year to year, so previous holiday hiring analyses are not directly comparable. The analysis measures postings and searches on Indeed; its figures do not establish the full number of seasonal jobs or job seekers outside that platform.
Open question
Will the gap between seasonal job seekers’ interest and seasonal postings persist through the 2025 holiday hiring season?
Source-stated
Cory Stahle reports that seasonal job searches rose faster than seasonal job postings by September 30, 2025.
As of September 30, searches for holiday jobs were already 27% above the same period in 2024 and 50% above 2023.
Source-stated
Stahle says seasonal job postings rose only modestly year over year.
Seasonal job postings are up by only 2.7% compared to the same time last year.
Source-stated
Stahle concludes that the 2025 holiday hiring season looks tougher for job seekers and a little easier for employers.
All told, this year’s holiday season looks to be a tougher one for job seekers and a little easier for employers.
Source-stated
Stahle says seasonal job postings were below the pre-pandemic level as of September 30, 2025.
This year is above 2024’s pace but still 3.4% below 2023 and 2.5% below the 2019 pre-pandemic norm.
Source and contributor context
Indeed Hiring Lab · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Indeed Hiring Lab
Indeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: ab9f52e1-9a09-7dcf-162e-63a638cb51fc.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-11T17:04:31.110Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model.
Observation: 0919fadffc02dd762652f1445184ccb1c1a1d1bf5f580c954803b3494b603b66. Source text hash: f05b71a6c69f63537fd28fe6511da088d344a6373928ff3fcdd86f057eb0f67e.
Revision and source-check history
Version 1 · 2026-11-11T17:08:23.425Z
Cory Stahle argues in Indeed Hiring Lab that holiday jobs are harder to find
published Cory Stahle’s analysis on October 16, 2025. Stahle argues that holiday job seekers face a more competitive market: searches for seasonal work have risen much faster than seasonal job postings, leaving more workers looking for a pool of jobs that remains below pre-pandemic levels. He says this may make the holiday season tougher for job seekers and a little easier for employers. Stahle reports that searches were up 27% year over year by September 30, while postings had risen only 2.7%. He suggests that workers may be searching earlier to get ahead of competition, as employers show less urgency to hire. The analysis also notes that retail jobs make up most seasonal postings. Its conclusion is about relative opportunity, not the number of jobs any one person will find. Indeed Hiring Lab’s definitions of seasonal postings and searches include holiday-related terms, and the analysis cautions that those definitions change slightly from year to year, making earlier analyses not directly comparable. The figures describe postings and searches on Indeed, not all seasonal work.
Original source
· Article
Source details
Original source date: Oct 16, 2025 (2025-10-16).
Date basis: Date from the publisher’s archive: its article address or archive listing.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-11T17:08:23.425Z. First observed: 2026-10-30T23:32:21.546Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-30T23:33:44.549Z.
Limits
Text as retrieved on October 30, 2026; originally published October 16, 2025. says its definitions of seasonal job postings and searches change slightly from year to year, so previous holiday hiring analyses are not directly comparable. The analysis measures postings and searches on Indeed; its figures do not establish the full number of seasonal jobs or job seekers outside that platform.
Open question
Will the gap between seasonal job seekers’ interest and seasonal postings persist through the 2025 holiday hiring season?
Source-stated
Cory Stahle reports that seasonal job searches rose faster than seasonal job postings by September 30, 2025.
As of September 30, searches for holiday jobs were already 27% above the same period in 2024 and 50% above 2023.
Source-stated
Stahle says seasonal job postings rose only modestly year over year.
Seasonal job postings are up by only 2.7% compared to the same time last year.
Source-stated
Stahle concludes that the 2025 holiday hiring season looks tougher for job seekers and a little easier for employers.
All told, this year’s holiday season looks to be a tougher one for job seekers and a little easier for employers.
Source-stated
Stahle says seasonal job postings were below the pre-pandemic level as of September 30, 2025.
This year is above 2024’s pace but still 3.4% below 2023 and 2.5% below the 2019 pre-pandemic norm.
Source and contributor context
Indeed Hiring Lab · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Indeed Hiring Lab
Indeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: ab9f52e1-9a09-7dcf-162e-63a638cb51fc.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-11T17:04:31.110Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model.
Observation: 0919fadffc02dd762652f1445184ccb1c1a1d1bf5f580c954803b3494b603b66. Source text hash: f05b71a6c69f63537fd28fe6511da088d344a6373928ff3fcdd86f057eb0f67e.
passed · 2026-11-11T17:04:31.110Z · anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
Publication: ab9f52e1-9a09-7dcf-162e-63a638cb51fc
attribution — pass: The reading attributes the analysis to Cory Stahle at Indeed Hiring Lab, matching the byline and publisher. It presents the findings and conclusions as his claims, not as established facts.
By Cory Stahle October 16, 2025
summary — pass: The summary accurately conveys the central argument: searches rose much faster than postings, postings remain below pre-pandemic levels, workers are searching earlier, and the season looks tougher for job seekers. It explains the key terms, including how seasonal postings are defined, and it is readable without specialist background. The title and question follow from the source without overstating it.
The 2025 holiday hiring landscape is shaping up to be more competitive for job seekers than it has been in recent years.
date — pass: October 16, 2025 matches the source dateline and evidence.originalPublished at day precision. The reading uses no later carousel items and adds no hindsight. Its question treats the gap's persistence as unresolved rather than reporting an outcome.
October 16, 2025
support — pass: Each claim is source-stated and backed by its excerpt: the 27% rise in searches, the 2.7% rise in postings, the levels relative to 2023 and 2019, and the conclusion about job seekers and employers. The point about reduced employer urgency rests on the source's figure on urgently hiring postings. The limitations match the source's methodology note.
Only 2% of holiday job postings explicitly stated that they were urgently hiring at the end of September this year.
media — pass: No media was selected, and no verified media candidates were supplied, so leaving the media empty is appropriate.
Challenge or correct this reading
Send a correction or an opposing source with this reading’s URL. Disagreement and uncertainty can remain unresolved.
Indeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Explore Indeed Hiring LabIndeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Explore Indeed Hiring LabIndeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Explore Indeed Hiring LabIndeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Explore Indeed Hiring LabIndeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Explore Indeed Hiring LabIndeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Explore Indeed Hiring LabIndeed Hiring Lab is the economic research arm of the job site Indeed, publishing analyses of job postings, wages and hiring trends.
Explore Indeed Hiring Lab