Odds are greater this year that the person who rings up your holiday purchases will be a year-round worker rather than someone hired for the season.

If labor trends hold, retailers will add fewer temporary workers this year than last, marking the second consecutive decline in holiday hiring. Stores began interviewing as early as summer to fill seasonal jobs in stockrooms, restaurants, gift-wrap centers and on sales floors, and hiring is cautious, retailers and experts report.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s biggest retailer, said it will employ between 20,000 and 25,000 seasonal workers nationally, half the number the company said it would hire last year.

Two factors are at work. Stores are reluctant to add staff amid weak sales and predictions that a housing slump, higher gas prices and credit worries will crimp holiday spending. The National Retail Federation forecasts the smallest holiday-sales gain in five years: 4 percent compared with a 10-year average of 4.8 percent.

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