Even Santa Isn’t Immune to Today’s Tough Job Market

Having a real beard is worth an extra $9 an hour for people who work as Santas, an analysis of job postings found.

Demand for Santas with real beards has surged over the past three years, and their pay has gone up accordingly, even as the overall number of Santa jobs has declined, according to a report Tuesday by Revelio Labs, a data analytics company. Pay advertised for real Santas with real beards averaged $30.84 an hour compared to $21.83 for those who must don false whiskers.

Revelio created the report by analyzing job postings on professional networking websites.

In some ways, the trend among Santas mirrors the trajectory of the overall job market: there are fewer jobs available, while workers with in-demand skills are commanding higher salaries.

Overall job listings for Santas have fallen 35% since 2024. At the same time, employers have gotten pickier, with 70% of job postings now demanding real beards compared to 14% in 2022. The median wage for Santas was $25 an hour, up from $21.89 in 2022.

“The culprits are familiar: retailers tightening budgets, mall vacancies rising, and the traditional holiday photo experience losing ground to online shopping,” Caelan Wilkie-Rogers and Paulina Tilly, researchers at Revelio, wrote in a blog post. “Despite a growing need for holiday cheer amid rising costs of living and declining consumer sentiment, employers are hiring fewer Santas than ever.”