Seasonal hiring opportunities available

LAFAYETTE, In (WLFI) - The holiday season is a time when retail stores expect to hire more employees.

Purdue Professor Sugato Chakravarty said in a recent A-ON poll 44 percent of the nations leading retailers are hiring fewer holiday workers than they did last year, while 19 percent expect to hire more.

The Lafayette JC Penney store is one  retailer hiring more seasonal employees.

Store manager John Cassady said his store started hiring the first week of October. 

"We projected out our hiring needs for the fourth quarter and we are right on target. We are looking at about hiring ten percent more employees than we had based on sales last year, based on our sales plan," said Cassady.

Cassady said there is an abundance of qualified applicants for positions. He said JC Penney has one more phase of Holiday hiring.

Cassady said many of his full time employees started as seasonal workers. Depending on the quality of seasonal workers, he might ask them to stay. He said it will be store employees that really make the difference, when it comes to retail competition in the Tippecanoe Mall.

JC Penney expects to finish the 3rd phase of hiring in early December.