The front of a DICK'S Sporting Goods store with a lit sign over the entrance, seen across a large parking lot with several parked pickup trucks and SUVs at dusk.
A DICK'S Sporting Goods store and its parking lot in Davenport, Iowa, in an image dated Jan. 11, 2023. Representative image; not a location named in the hiring announcement. Photo: Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
HiringHiring Announcements
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DICK’S and Foot Locker Plan More Than 11,000 Holiday Hires, Down From About 14,000 Last Year

jobgetr.ai Newsroom
By jobgetr.ai Newsroom

Hiring

DICK’S Sporting Goods Inc. plans to hire more than 11,000 seasonal workers across its store brands for the 2026 holiday season, the Pittsburgh-based retailer said on Oct. 15. That is a smaller target than a year ago, when the company said it expected to bring on about 14,000.

About 8,400 of this year’s hires are for DICK’S Sporting Goods, DICK’S House of Sport, Going Going Gone! and Public Lands stores. About 2,900 are for Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports and WSS stores in North America. DICK’S acquired Foot Locker in 2025, and this is the second holiday season in which the company has announced hiring plans for both groups of stores.

How this year compares

The company’s 2025 announcement called for more than 9,100 hires at DICK’S Sporting Goods, House of Sport and Public Lands stores and more than 500 at Going, Going, Gone!, along with about 4,750 at the Foot Locker banners in North America.

Set side by side, the DICK’S banners’ target is down by roughly 1,200 positions, or about 12%. The Foot Locker banners’ target is down by about 1,850, or close to 40%. The overall goal is down by roughly 3,000, or about a fifth. The 2026 release does not explain the smaller numbers and does not compare them with last year’s.

How hiring works

The company’s ninth annual “National Signing Day” is Wednesday, Oct. 21. Candidates can interview on site and meet store leaders at participating locations that day. Hiring continues until the positions are filled. Applications for the DICK’S brands go through dicks.com/jobs, and applications for the Foot Locker brands go through careers.footlocker.com.

The release describes the pay as “competitive hourly pay” but gives no rate. Seasonal workers get associate discounts across the participating brands. After 30 days on the job they can join the company’s 401(k) plan, which has a company match that is 100% vested with no waiting period.

All DICK’S Sporting Goods Inc. stores and U.S. distribution centers will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, and will reopen on Black Friday, Nov. 27. Online shopping remains open on Thanksgiving.

“Our stores truly come alive during the holidays,” said Julie Lodge-Jarrett, the company’s chief people, purpose and transformation officer.

Why it matters for job seekers

Even after the cut, the company is offering more than 11,000 seasonal positions, which is a substantial number for a sporting-goods and footwear retailer. The release does not say how many seasonal workers the company expects to keep after the holidays.

Oct. 21 is the main date to plan around, since that is when participating stores hold on-site interviews. Openings at Foot Locker stores are noticeably fewer than last year, so applicants interested in footwear retail may want to apply to both groups of stores.

The catch

These are hiring targets, not hires. The release does not break the openings down by state or metro area or by job type, so it does not show how many positions are in any particular market, including Georgia. It also does not give pay ranges.

A smaller target is not, by itself, evidence of weaker holiday sales expectations. Seasonal hiring targets also depend on staff turnover and on how many permanent workers a retailer already has. The company has not said what drove this year’s lower number.

Sources

Featured photo: A DICK'S Sporting Goods store and its parking lot in Davenport, Iowa, in an image dated Jan. 11, 2023. Representative image; not a location named in the hiring announcement. Photo: Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Cropped from the original.

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