Stores See Surge In Applicants For Holiday Help; DHL Firings Devastates Ohio Town
By:
TraderMark Wednesday, November 12, 2008 10:13 AM
No surprises here, but
quite sad overall. '79-'81 Redux.
- The odds of landing a part-time job at department store operator Bealls Outlet Stores Inc. this holiday season are slimmer than getting into Harvard: It's one out of every 45.
- Don't think the chances are any better at 7-Eleven. One California store received more than 100 applicants in a week and a half for jobs that pay $8.50 per hour -- and the retailer doesn't even usually hire holiday workers.
- From department stores and convenience chains to call centers, managers who only a year ago had to scramble to fill holiday jobs are seeing a surge in the number of seasoned applicants -- many of them laid off in other sectors and desperate for a way to pay the bills.
- The flood of jobseekers comes even as the retail industry drastically cuts back on holiday hiring because of the drop-off in consumer spending, and the applicants -- who differ from the usual pool, teens or stay-at-home moms looking for extra spending money -- reflect the nation's fast-deteriorating job market.
- At UPS Inc., which is just starting to ramp up its holiday hiring, as much as 30 percent of the seasonal hires in the Northeast are coming from the ranks of the recently laid off, said spokeswoman Ronna Charles Branch. In the past, she said, applicants for holiday jobs at the world's biggest shipping carrier were largely students.
- Jean Telfort, a 41-year-old Army veteran, has applied for dozens of part-time jobs, including at Macy's and Nordstrom Inc., with no success. He needs money to help pay the rent and to pay down his $60,000 credit card bill, which includes his college tuition charges. (again I think foreign readers just have no idea the burden college costs have become in the United States - sets some people back a decade from graduation to pay these off - but that's ok - socialism is bad.
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