Story Published:
Oct 19, 2009 at 7:31 PM CST
Story Updated:
Oct 19, 2009 at 9:11 PM CST
If you've been to the store lately, you no doubt have noticed Christmas is arriving early. And so is the rush for those coveted holiday jobs.
When it comes to holiday jobs, there's good news and bad news this year. If all you want for Christmas is a job, the number of available jobs should be higher than last year. “We hope economy has rebounded enough so we'll have good seasonal opportunities,” said Becky Quinn with Missouri Career Center.
The bad news is an 8 to 9% unemployment rate in Greene County means there will more people applying for those jobs. “It's definitely going to increase the number of applicants.”
Though most retailers won't even begin hiring holiday help for a few more weeks, Springfield's Kmart stores have already seen their online application site exploding. “At this point we have 400 in systems which is more than double last year,” said sales manager Mike Gray.
And Kmart plans to hire just 60 of those 400, allowing the stores to be even more selective about who they hire. “It's an outgoing person, friendly, good common sense,” said Gray.
And while experience is not necessary, flexibility is. “We're finding some applications are more flexible this year. It used to be they could only work certain days. Pretty much flexible is good,” said Gray.
The fact that stores want flexibility will put students who go home for the holidays at a disadvantage. Stores say they're looking for employees who can start early and work right into the middle of January.
