How to Hire Seasonal Workers: A Recruitment Ad Calendar
Hire before the rush.
Seasonal hiring runs on a deadline that won't move. Start 12 weeks out, bring last season's people back first, and advertise only the gap. Here's the calendar we'd run, week by week.
Month-to-monthNo long-term contractsProcurement-friendly
Short answer
Start 12 weeks before day 0, your first day with seasonal staff working. Rehire last season's people first, then run paid ads for the final 6 weeks, paced evenly. Pause each location's ads the day its roles close.
Peaks
Know your peak. Count back.
Every seasonal plan starts with one date: the first day you need seasonal staff working. Call it day 0. Offers, checks, training and scheduling all happen before it, so your ads have to finish well before it too.
Holiday retail
When it runs
NRF counts the holiday season as Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.1
Typical roles
Sales floorCashierStockOrder pickup
Day 0 is
Your first busy weekend, with training done.
Holiday warehouse and delivery
When it runs
Challenger tracks it as fourth-quarter hiring, October to December.2
Typical roles
PickerPackerLoaderSorter
Day 0 is
The day your site's volume rises, not the retail rush.
Summer
When it runs
April to July. BLS counted 1.8 million more employed 16- to 24-year-olds in July 2026 than in April.3
Typical roles
HospitalityRecreationRetailCamps
Day 0 is
Opening day. Plan backfill for staff who leave when school starts.
Tax season
When it runs
The 2026 IRS filing season opened Jan. 26. The federal deadline was April 15.4
Typical roles
Tax preparerClient serviceCall center
Day 0 is
The day filing opens, with training done.
Enrollment seasons
When it runs
Medicare open enrollment runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. For 2027 coverage, HealthCare.gov runs Nov. 1, 2026 to Jan. 15, 2027.5 Check the dates each year.
Typical roles
Call centerLicensed agentCustomer service
Day 0 is
The window's first day. Licensed roles need more lead time.
Plan for summer staff to leave before the season ends. Challenger notes that retail employment typically dips in September as students return to school.2 Write your ads for the role, the shifts and the dates, not for an age group.
How big is holiday hiring in 2026?
NRF expects retailers to hire 325,000 to 375,000 seasonal workers in 2026, in line with its estimate of 356,000 in 2025.1
Challenger, Gray & Christmas forecasts about 450,000 retail jobs added in the fourth quarter of 2026. Retailers added 461,500 in the same quarter of 2025, the smallest seasonal gain since 2008. Transportation and warehousing added 266,500, and Challenger expects a similar total in 2026.2 The two firms count in different ways, so don't compare their numbers directly.
Big seasonal announcements now come later.
From 2012 through 2024, September held at least 60% of the seasonal hiring plans Challenger tracked across September and October. That share fell to 29% in 2025 and 17% in 2026.6 Don't wait for the headlines. Run your calendar from your own day 0.
September's share of the Sept.–Oct. seasonal hiring announcements
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, November 5, 2026 · source 6. Third-party data.
The calendar
The seasonal ad calendar, week by week.
Each row is a week counted back from day 0. Use one calendar per peak, and one day 0 per location if their dates differ.
12 weeks out
Prep
Plan.
Set day 0 for each location. Count roles by location and shift. Confirm pay for each role. Pick the budget that owns the roles, and set the flight's cap.
10 weeks out
Prep
Rehire.
Contact last season's workers who agreed to hear from you. Offer them first pick of shifts. Track who says yes, by location, so you only advertise the gap.
8 weeks out
Prep
Job pages.
Publish one job page per role and location, with pay, shifts, start date and end date. Add JobPosting markup so Google's job search can list it.7 List the jobs on free channels too.
6 weeks out
Ads live
Ads on.
Launch paid ads, one ad set per location, each pointing at that location's job page. Leave time for ad review: Google says most ads are reviewed within one business day, and some take longer.8
4 weeks out
Ads live
Events and signs.
Run hiring events. Put flyers with QR codes in each location. Check each flight against its plan to date every week.
2 weeks out
Ads live
First close-outs.
Pause ads at each location whose roles are closed. Keep ads running only where roles are still open.
Day 0: Peak starts
Day 0
Backfill only.
Keep small ads running for open roles and for staff who drop out. Update any job page whose shifts or pay changed.
Your live job pages
Last day of the peak
Wrap
Wrap.
End every seasonal ad. Take down flyers and signs. Expire each seasonal job page the way Google asks.7
2 weeks after
Wrap
Review.
Record day 0, the date each location closed its roles, and spend against the cap. Ask departing staff if you can contact them next season, and note the date they agreed.
Hypothetical · Example dates
Say day 0 is Monday, Nov. 1, 2027. Planning starts the week of Aug. 9. Rehire outreach starts Aug. 23. Paid ads start Sept. 20.
Short peak or late start? Run the plan and rehire weeks together. Keep at least two weeks of paid ads before day 0, so there's time to fix a rejected ad.
Peak season. Off your plate.
Seasonal surge coming? Hand us the recruitment marketing. We plan the calendar, make the ads and run them at every location, keep each budget on plan, and pause each location's ads the day its roles close. You meet the people.
Planned.
A day 0 and a cap for every location.
Paced.
Each flight kept on plan, week by week.
Paused.
Ads off the day a location's roles close.
Your free hiring plan: where your job ads run now and what to fix, a channel and budget plan for your hardest role, and a sample ad in your brand. In your inbox within 3 business days. No call needed.
Month-to-month, with no long-term contracts.
Fund and pace
One flight. One cap.
Treat seasonal recruitment advertising as a flight: a set run of ads with a start date, an end date and a cap. Book it to the budget that already owns the roles, such as your retail recruitment or warehouse recruitment budget. Skip a separate "seasonal" bucket, so the peak shows up where finance already looks.
Set the cap from last season.
Start from last season's weeks, locations and spend, then scale for any new roles. If the budget has no room, agree the change with finance in writing before launch. Our recruitment budget template gives each role group its own row, plus a row for spend no group owns.
Pace by the calendar.
Calendar-even pacing means the plan grows by the same amount each day. Plan to date is the cap times days gone, divided by days in the flight.
One holiday flight
Cap$12,000
Flight40 days
Plan grows$300 a day
On day 20, plan to date is $6,000. If $7,500 is spent, the flight is $1,500 ahead of plan. To finish on the cap, it can spend $225 a day for the 20 days left.
Our free budget pacing calculator does this math for each flight. Enter the cap, the days in the flight, today's day and spend so far. Running many locations at once? See how we handle high volume hiring.
Why front-loading is a risk.
Appcast's 2026 benchmark report charts cost per hire across the year. It found "a spike around October and a drop again in December as seasonal hiring winds down."9 That's a market figure, not a forecast for your ads. Still, the busiest weeks can cost the most. A flight that spends its cap early has little left for late openings and no-shows.
Ad platforms don't pace to your calendar, either. Google says a campaign "might spend up to twice your average daily budget" on a given day, inside its monthly limit. Meta calls a daily budget "the average amount you're willing to spend" each day.10 So check plan to date yourself, every week. Want more spend early? Write it into the plan as a step, so it's a decision, not drift.
Rehire
Bring last season's people back first.
People who worked last season already know the job and the site. Reaching them costs little and needs no ad review. Start there, then advertise only the gap.
Use your own lists, with permission.
- Ask at the end. As each season ends, ask each worker if you can contact them about the next one. Record the answer, the date and how they want to hear from you.
- Keep it by location. Sort the list by location and role, so each location invites its own people back.
- Reach out at week −10. Use the channel each person agreed to, and give a date to reply by.
- Honor opt-outs. Take people off the list as soon as they ask.
Can you target past seasonal workers on Facebook?
Sometimes, with care. A job ad on Meta runs in the Employment category. There, ages are fixed at 18 to 65+ and all genders are included. Lookalike audiences aren't available, and ZIP codes can't be used. In the US and Canada, each location must cover at least a 15-mile radius.11
Customer lists are a separate case. Meta's developer docs let you check if a customer list "is eligible for use in a special ad category campaign."11 Not every list is. In October 2024, Meta announced extra limits on customer lists in US employment ads. Its Help Center now says it "will not be rolling out" those limits, and that its terms and policies have not changed.12 Check that page again before you upload.
Meta's Custom Audience terms say you need "all necessary rights and permissions and a lawful basis" to use the data. Contact details are hashed before upload.13 A list of last season's staff also mirrors who you hired before, so ask your counsel before you use one. Our guide to job ad targeting rules on Meta and Google has the full rules.
Not legal advice
Last reviewed November 2026. Not legal advice; your counsel decides.
Events and signs
Use the doors people already walk through.
Many seasonal roles are local and hourly. People pass your locations every day, so put that space to work.
- Hiring event. Run an open interview day around week −4. Our guide on how to advertise a hiring event has a 4-week plan. Want it promoted for you? See hiring event marketing.
- Flyers. Put a flyer at each entrance and checkout, with the roles, pay and dates. Our free now hiring flyer maker builds one in your browser.
- QR codes. Give each sign its own tagged code that opens that location's job page. The hiring event QR code generator makes one per placement.
- Take them down. Remove a location's signs when its roles close.
For role-by-role advice, see our guides on how to hire retail employees and how to hire warehouse workers.
Close-out
Close out by location.
Roles close at different speeds. One location may be done in a week. Another may need ads until day 0. So close out each location, not the whole flight at once.
Step 1
Check status weekly.
Ask each location which roles are closed. Compare that with the job pages still live.
Step 2
Pause that location's ads.
Pause its ad set the day its roles close. Keep other locations running.
Step 3
Close the job page.
Google asks you to remove a posting once the job is taken, even before its expiration date. Use a past validThrough date, a 404 or 410 status, or no markup.7
Step 4
Leave the rest of the cap unspent.
Don't move it to another location just to hit the cap. Report it to finance as unspent.
Step 5
Take down signs.
Remove flyers and QR signs at that location, so nobody scans into a closed role.
When should we start seasonal hiring ads?
Start planning about 12 weeks before the first day you need seasonal staff. Contact last season's workers at about 10 weeks out, and start paid ads at about 6 weeks. For a short peak, keep at least two weeks of paid ads before the start date. That leaves time to fix a rejected ad.
How do we budget a seasonal surge?
Book it as one flight with one cap, inside the budget that already owns the roles. Set the cap from last season's weeks, locations and spend. Pace it evenly by the calendar and check it every week. If the budget has no room, agree the change with finance in writing before launch.
Can we target past seasonal workers on Facebook?
Sometimes. Job ads run in Meta's Employment category, where lookalike audiences aren't available. Meta offers a check for whether a customer list can be used in that category. Its terms require the rights and a lawful basis to use the data. A past-staff list mirrors who you hired before, so ask your counsel first.
What do we do when roles close early?
Pause that location's ads the same day and close its job page. Keep ads running only where roles are still open. Leave the unused part of the cap unspent and report it to finance. Don't move it to another location just to hit the cap.
Sources
Last reviewed November 2026. Not legal advice; your counsel decides.
Seasonal figures and platform rules were read on their own pages that month. Budget figures are hypothetical.
- 1National Retail Federation, "NRF Forecasts 2026 Holiday Sales Growth as Consumers Remain Resilient", press release, October 15, 2026: 325,000 to 375,000 seasonal workers expected, against an estimated 356,000 in 2025; NRF defines the holiday season as Nov. 1 through Dec. 31. A forecast, not a count. nrf.com · NRF forecasts 2026 holiday sales growth
- 2Challenger, Gray & Christmas, "2026 Holiday Hiring Outlook: After Lowest Season Since 2008, Will Retailers Stock Up on Workers?", September 23, 2026: a forecast of 450,000 retail jobs added in Q4 2026; 461,500 added in Q4 2025 (its analysis of non-seasonally adjusted BLS data); 266,500 transportation and warehousing jobs added in Q4 2025, with a similar total forecast for 2026; employment "typically dips in September" as students return to school. challengergray.com · 2026 holiday hiring outlook
- 3U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Employment and Unemployment Among Youth — Summer 2026", news release, August 20, 2026: employed youth rose by 1.8 million (9.1%) between April and July. bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm
- 4Internal Revenue Service, "IRS opens 2026 filing season", IR-2026-12, January 26, 2026, which names the Wednesday, April 15, 2026 federal deadline. Dates change each year. irs.gov/newsroom/irs-opens-2026-filing-season
- 5Medicare.gov, "Joining a plan" (Open Enrollment, October 15 to December 7), and HealthCare.gov, "Dates and deadlines" (Open Enrollment for 2027 coverage, November 1 to January 15). Live pages, checked November 2026. medicare.gov · Joining a plan · healthcare.gov · Dates and deadlines
- 6Challenger, Gray & Christmas, "October Layoffs at Three-Year Low; Seasonal Hiring Plans Up 26%", November 5, 2026, section "Seasonal Hiring Announcements Arriving Later": at least 60% in September from 2012 through 2024, 29% in 2025 and 17% in 2026. challengergray.com · October 2026 report
- 7Google Search Central, "Job posting (JobPosting) structured data". Checked November 2026. Expire a job with a past validThrough date, a 404 or 410 status, removed markup or the Indexing API; "If the job is filled before the expiration date occurs, remove the job posting." developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/job-posting
- 8Google Ads Help, "About the ad review process". Checked November 2026: "Most ads are reviewed within one business day"; some reviews take longer. support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/1722120
- 9Appcast, 2026 Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report, February 2026 (2025 US data), p. 17 (median cost per hire by month; the seasonal pattern; "Hiring got more expensive in 2025"). Appcast's own note on that page says it reports cost per hire only through October, because hires from November and December requisitions are still coming in. A third-party market figure, not a figure of ours. info.appcast.io · 2026 benchmark report (PDF)
- 10Google Ads Help, "About overdelivery and your average daily budget" ("On a given day, your campaign might spend up to twice your average daily budget"), and Meta for Developers, Marketing API, "Budgets". Live pages, checked November 2026. support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1704443 · developers.facebook.com · Marketing API, Budgets
- 11Meta for Developers, Marketing API, "Special Ad Categories". Checked November 2026: ages 18 through 65+, no gender choice, no ZIP codes, at least a 15-mile (25 km) radius, no lookalike audiences, and the is_eligible_for_sac_campaigns check for customer list custom audiences. developers.facebook.com · Marketing API, Special Ad Category
- 12Meta Business Help Center, "Upcoming restrictions on customer list custom audiences (US only, housing, employment, financial products and services)", read November 8, 2026. Despite its title, the page now says: "We will not be rolling out these previously announced restrictions." It adds that "Meta's terms and policies have not changed." Its timeline dates the announcement to October 2024. Read its current status on the day you upload. facebook.com/business/help/1452187872132363
- 13Meta, "Custom Audience Terms", effective December 3, 2025, clause 1 (rights, permissions and a lawful basis) and introduction (contact information is hashed before upload). facebook.com/legal/terms/customaudience
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