Michigan retailers will limit holiday hiring this year, according to a study released this week.

The Michigan Retail Index, a monthly report of Michigan’s retail activity, found 64 percent of retailers believe the holiday labor pool will be larger this year than it was last year.

The report, which is compiled by the Michigan Retailers Association and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, shows that while 82 percent of retailers plan to hire the same amount of help as last year, 17 percent plan to cut back and only 2 percent plan to hire more.

Todd Kaercher, a manager at Target, 4890 Marsh Road in Okemos, said that though managers are pleased to know the hiring pool will be greater, they will be hiring about the same amount of people as last year.

“We will certainly hire holiday help,” Kaercher said, adding that the store usually hires about 50 to 75 people each year. “We won’t be needing more than last year, mainly because of caution.”

That means students looking to make extra cash during the holiday season will be up against stiff competition.

“Having a greater pool means there are more qualified people to choose from,” Kaercher said. “Hiring more qualified people will increase productivity and efficiency.”

He also added that 30 percent of holiday hires are students, some of which are transfers from other stores. He said that though he thinks the holiday season will be a good one, the store still is cautious about overstocking or having more people than needed.

“Many of our student employees go home for the holidays and work at local stores,” Kaercher said. “We actually prefer transfers because we don’t have to train them.”

Hospitality business sophomore Daniel Callton says the companies maybe are overreacting and limiting hires will eventually hurt them.

“If you don’t hire people, you don’t make money,” he said. “These are definitely signs of a stagnant economy.”

“Cautious optimism,” is how Thomas Scott described retailers’ attitudes.

Scott, the vice president of public affairs and communications for the report, said retailers are optimistic the economy will improve, yet they don’t want to make unnecessary investments.

“Certainly we’ve seen improvement over the last year,” he said. “But it hasn’t been the kind of improvement that anyone could get really excited about.”

Scott said Michigan might still be experiencing the backlash of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “Last September was the real low point in terms of sales,” he said, adding that economic improvement has been slow and unpredictable.