That trend appears to be hitting home in Helena as well. The local economy is often thought to be insulated from national boom and bust cycles due to the heavy presence of steady government employment, but local officials say the employment picture here is changing.
“We have a handful (of seasonal job listings), but it's down significantly,” said Deb Buxbaum, manager of the Helena Job Service. “Employers are not really gearing up, even though next Friday is the big shopping day.”
“It's actually almost even with last year,” he said. “And a lot of those will convert into regular employees. I think Montana's different.”
At one of the region's largest private employers, seasonal hiring isn't a trend, but job applications in general are up. Craig Johnson, manager of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, said the store doesn't make special hires just for the peak season, but that more people appear to be interesting in working at the store.
“About a month and a half ago, we started seeing an increase in applications, and I think that's due to the economy,” he said.
Managers of several local box stores declined to comment on their holiday hiring plans.
Across downtown, few businesses hire additional help for the holidays, said Downtown Helena director Jim McHugh.
“I think everybody's approaching it pretty cautiously,” he said. “There hasn't been a huge bump in seasonal help, other than what they're doing in extended hours.”
In the broader employment picture, McHugh said downtown businesses are seeing more and more qualified applicants for open positions, after years of struggling to find competent help.
“The quality of applicants and the response level is higher than it was before,” he said.
Buxbaum said that from the numbers compiled monthly by the Job Service, a slowdown in seasonal hiring is part of a larger, more troubling trend of more Helenans chasing fewer jobs.
Earlier in the year, she said, the Job Service would have some 320 job listings on a given day. That number has slipped to around 215, she said.
Concurrently, the number of job seekers has soared. Last November, the Job Service saw an average of 220 job seekers walk through the door each day. This month, that number is 400.
“Unfortunately, there have been layoffs,” Buxbaum said. “They may only be one or two people at a time so while it doesn't hit the newspaper, there's still a lot of frustration.”
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