Retailers remain one of the nation’s most important employers: They were seeking 650,000 workers in August, according to the Labor Department, nearly matching the record number of job opportunities they offered in 2000. Thanks to low unemployment and high demand, retail chains are also sweetening their offer with higher pay, reports The Wall Street Journal. The average hourly pay in the retail sector is $18.25, says the Labor Department.

Macy’s alone plans to hire some 80,000 workers for the holiday season, and some of those employees will be kept on after Christmas. Target is looking for 100,000 employees.

To help bring job seekers and retailers together, the National Retail Federation began a program to help train unemployed people for entry-level jobs, and the organization expects to process about 5,000 candidates over a year. Moreover, the federation says it hopes the training will encourage workers to remain at their jobs for an extended period — turnover in the retail industry is about 20 percent higher than in the private sector overall.

Wal-Mart Stores has a training program of its own, which it launched in 2015, and which has so far trained about 375,000 employees.

“There is a need for greater skill in retail jobs than ever before,” Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation, told the Journal.