Pretty soon the malls will have extended hours as people hustle to do their holiday shopping. But with stores opening earlier and closing later, they need more employees to work those shifts.
Most stores here at the Lycoming Mall are hiring seasonal employees to work from now until mid-January. Some managers hope they have enough workers to handle the job.
Almost every store at the Lycoming Mall near Muncy has a "Help Wanted" sign in the window. Stores are hiring seasonal employees to work the mall's extended hours during the busiest time of the year. Jordan Sheets of Hughesville knows exactly what it's like to apply for jobs.
"Oh it's horrible. I've probably over the last year put over 50 applications in," Sheets said.
Sheets was recently hired at Kitchen Collection. Manager Jessica Lizotte says she's only allowed to hire around seven people this year. That's less than half of the employees she hired last holiday season.
"This year compared to last year has been very difficult with payroll. We just don't have the hours with people. We're very short-staffed this year unfortunately," Lizotte said.
Most of the holiday positions are for seasonal employees. That's about 20-25 hours per week. According to the manager here at Best Buy, depending on the employee, that could lead to year-round employment.
"Depending on your performance, we can keep you on if we have the positions for more lengthy employment," Sean Forker said.
Sean Forker is a manager at Best Buy near the Lycoming Mall. He says the store has a lot of new products coming out and not enough employees to sell them.
"We're hiring for a lot of positions in our store, about 12-16 positions right now that we're looking to fill quickly," Forker said.
Zeb Buck of Penndale is a student and was hired at Best Buy last month.
"It's actually more or less a temporary thing, but the great thing about this place is the flexibility they give you," Buck said.
Most of these stores offer incentives like employee discounts. Hoping holiday helpers become holiday shoppers. Store managers say if you are interested in seasonal retail work, get your applications in soon, stores are going to start getting very busy.