SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Just one week until black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. Many Utahns are hoping to land a seasonal job to help make ends meet, but for the second year in a row the economy is taking its toll. There are more people going after fewer seasonal jobs.
The holiday season is the time of year when retailers typically bring on extra employees to help handle the increase in shoppers. It's usually when people apply for part time work or second jobs to earn extra spending money, but getting those jobs has gotten more and more difficult.
Richard Tripp with Strategic Staffing says, “In 2007 we were struggling to find workers to fill those positions and now of course we have maybe six or seven applicants for every open position.” He says that compared to two years ago the number of seasonal jobs are down about 40 percent. Tripp says, “The retail positions are where we're seeing the biggest downward slide from two years ago.”
Managers at the Murray Target store say applications are through the roof. It's not just teens and college students applying - which is what they've seen in the past. This year Tim Lowry says they're getting all types of people applying, “I’ve seen a huge amount of diversity as far as age, anywhere from kids just out of high school or in high school up to people in their 50s and 60s that have applied.”
For those lucky to nab a seasonal job only about 15 percent of them will kept on full time in the new year.
Companies that need seasonal help will hire as early as October. Tripp says there are seasonal jobs that still need to be filled.
