Mall owners chip in to help stores and restaurants find workers

Remember being a student trying to look for a part-time or summer job at the mall and not knowing where to start?

Well, add a job to the one-stop shopping offered by your local mall.

Shopping centers are helping their stores and restaurants find workers by consolidating job openings into a central list. They’re holding job fairs and posting lists of which stores and restaurants are hiring on their websites and apps.

It makes sense for shopping center operators to step up and use their social media accounts and their properties to make it easier for job seekers to find work and for their tenants to find workers.

The U.S. still has 400,000 fewer retail jobs than it had before the pandemic, but based on the latest jobless report, Texas retail employment has recovered to its former level of retail jobs. And more than 50% of retailers told the Dallas Fed Bank they’re shopping for more hires.

For the first time, Dallas’ NorthPark Center is promoting jobs available at the mall on its website. There are more than 100 open positions at about 80 stores, giving job seekers who want to work at the Dallas mall lots of choices.

“In speaking with managers, it was clear that many of our retailers were hiring, and along with the upswing in traffic, we thought it would be helpful to assist in their search and compile the information to promote through our digital channels,” said Kristen Gibbons, executive director of marketing and strategy at NorthPark.

Since the pandemic, the largest U.S. mall operator, Simon Property Group, has started holding virtual job fairs.

Simon has listed jobs open nationwide on its website and searchable by retailer, state and shopping center. Simon calls the service a courtesy to its tenants within its centers. Simon has about 500 jobs listed in Texas.

Mall traffic has climbed as more people are vaccinated. Placer.ai tracked 52 U.S. malls in March and found that foot traffic was up 86% from the same month last year. While that was below March 2019, the numbers are moving in the right direction and mall owners have said that shoppers are more deliberate about their visits, meaning they’re spending more than browsing.

Christopher Slijk, economist at the Dallas Fed Bank, said about 56% of retailers surveyed by the Fed in April said they were hiring or recalling furloughed employees.

While Texas’ 6.7% unemployment rate in April was higher than the U.S. rate of 6.1%, the number of retail jobs in the state is back up to about where it was before the pandemic started.

About 1,322,500 Texans worked in retail jobs in April compared with 1,324,500 in February 2020.

“What we’re hearing anecdotally is that there’s quite a bit of tightness,” Slijk said. “Of those hiring, 80% said there’s a lack of available applicants.” About half of those having difficulties hiring blamed unemployment benefits, he said.

Gov. Greg Abbott defended his decision to end the state’s $300-per-week federal unemployment boost that Texans have collected since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those benefits will end June 26, more than two months before the federal payments are scheduled to run out.

About 20 other governors have done the same, saying they have gotten pressure to do so from business owners and groups who say they can’t find workers.

High school and college students may seek out many of the retail jobs that are open. That’s another layer of potential workers that was disrupted last year, Slijk said.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicted that teens will fill 2 million jobs this summer.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias

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