Target is hiring more than 2,000 new workers this fall as it opens eight brand-new stores in six states.
Story Snapshot
- Target will open eight new stores this fall across Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
- The company expects the openings to create more than 2,000 jobs at starting pay between $15 and $24 an hour.
- The fall batch brings Target’s 2026 store total to 32, part of a longer plan to add 300 stores by 2035.
- The hiring push comes months after Target cut about 500 corporate and distribution jobs to shift more payroll into stores.
Eight New Doors Opening This Fall
Target confirmed it will open eight new locations this fall, spreading the expansion across Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The announcement, first detailed by Fox Business, frames the openings as a direct hiring event tied to specific addresses already listed on Target’s careers site.
Named sites include stores in Fort Worth, Katy, Norfolk, Cookeville, Lima, Lexington, Tupelo and Bridgehampton, each tagged “Now Hiring” for fall 2026.
Target says these eight stores are the latest slice of a much bigger build-out. The company has opened 24 stores already this year, meaning the fall additions push its 2026 total to 32 new locations.
Target has stated it intends to open more than 300 stores by 2035, making this fall’s openings one stop on a decade-long expansion map rather than a standalone event.
Target opening 8 new stores this fall, creating more than 2,000 jobs https://t.co/CDkgLlce8G
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) September 8, 2026
What The Jobs Actually Pay
Target’s corporate fact sheet ties every new store to real paychecks, not just square footage. The company says starting wages for new hires run from $15 to $24 an hour, with benefits and tuition-free education assistance included for eligible workers.
Target frames each store addition as adding to a workforce that already staffs more than 2,000 locations nationwide, a scale point the company uses to sell the jobs as stable, not seasonal filler.
The exact mix of full-time, part-time and seasonal roles inside that 2,000-plus figure isn’t spelled out store by store in Target’s public materials.
What is clear is that the company is actively recruiting right now, with live postings tied to each named address rather than a vague future promise. For job seekers near any of the eight sites, the openings are already on Target’s hiring page waiting for applications.
A Company Investing And Trimming At The Same Time
The fall hiring wave lands months after Target told employees it would cut roughly 500 jobs across distribution centers and regional offices. CNBC reported the cuts were paired with a stated plan to push more payroll into store-level staffing and customer experience.
Target’s own messaging described the move as freeing up labor dollars specifically for stores, which lines up with the same logic behind this fall’s eight openings.
That timing matters for anyone reading the 2,000-jobs headline at face value. Store-level hiring and corporate layoffs are separate line items inside Target’s overall labor strategy, not opposing halves of the same number.
Those watching retail employment trends should see this for what it is: a company reallocating labor toward the customer-facing floor while trimming overhead, a fairly standard move for a retailer trying to sharpen its in-store experience.
Part Of A Larger Growth Story
Target opened its 2,000th U.S. store earlier this year, a milestone the company paired with plans to invest billions in capital spending through 2026.
The eight fall openings, and the jobs attached to them, sit inside that broader $5 billion investment push covering new construction and store remodels alike.
For the six states getting new stores this fall, that investment shows up immediately as open positions and a grand-opening date on the calendar.
Whether the 2,000-plus jobs figure holds exactly to that number once every store is fully staffed, the practical reality for local job markets is straightforward.
Eight communities are getting a new retail employer, active hiring postings, and a stated wage floor above many entry-level retail jobs. That’s a concrete, checkable outcome unfolding in real time this fall, not a projection buried in a future earnings call.
Sources:
foxbusiness.com, corporate.target.com, indexbox.io, bizinsider.org, laopinion.com
