COLORADO SPRINGS – As low unemployment continues businesses across Colorado are working hard to hire holiday employees.
For retailers, restaurants, even organizations like The Salvation Army, the holidays are a crazy time of the year, but one of the best as far as profits and donations go. Some of these places are set for holiday hires while others are expecting some challenges in getting help.
Carrie Baker, assistant manager at Terra Verde Boutique, said, “It’s important for us to hire people. This year we had to hire three people, three seasonal employees.”
For established businesses like Terra Verde Boutique, to newer ones like Rocky Mountain Soap Market, hiring extra help for the holidays is crucial.
Jennifer Ross, owner of Rocky Mountain Soap Market, said with the shop’s bigger space “you need more people to be here to actually serve our customers.”
Baker said, “Downtown is just hustle and bustle and our store is packed full of people, and we need all the employees we can get to help all those customers have a great holiday season.”
While both shops are set for holiday hires other businesses are still searching.
Ross said, “It’s a challenge and I know hearing from other businesses downtown, or even not downtown, to find qualified help, folks that are willing to put in the hours that are needed for a busy holiday season.”
It’s not just businesses looking for extra hands.
“We’re looking for roughly about 100 bell ringers,” said Captain Erin Kauffman, an El Paso County coordinator with The Salvation Army.
Kauffman said those 100 bell ringers needed are paid positions through The Salvation Army. The organization will begin taking applications next Monday at its 908 Yuma location. Kauffman is hoping for a better response this year.
“We are looking for more paid workers this year compared to last year…we had a lot of open spots last year because…this is the number one city in America. The economy’s great here. There’s a lot of jobs.”
It makes it tougher to find people to work as a bell ringer which is a minimum wage position.
“If we don’t have bell ringers we don’t have money to support programs.”
Her big push now is to get people to apply and to make sure that every bell rings this holiday season.
The United States Postal Service is also trying to recruit workers. A staff member said it’s going to be a record year for parcel deliveries. While they can’t say if they’re hiring more people this year versus last year they are looking for 1,000 new employees across the state for holidays and beyond. In Colorado Springs hiring is going on for 40 seasonal employees.
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