Supply chain issues, employee staffing issues...and now the holiday season shines a light on another big shortage: Santa Claus.
The popular Christmas-themed entertainers that you can find at malls and department stores and more are in demand, but there aren't enough people to fill those roles. Santa, Mrs. Claus, elves and more are desperately needed all over America says Mitch Allen of hiresanta.com.
"There is unprecedented demand for Santa Claus appearances throughout the country and even throughout the world. The demand is through the roof right now."
According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for a mall Santa in Minneapolis is just over $40,000 per year (compared to just over $39,000 per year in America). So why is the seemingly well-paid job in such demand for actors?Allen says the pandemic is one of the key reasons.
"Many Santa's are a little bit leery of getting back out into the world and be seeing people face-to-face due to COVID. As you can imagine, our Santa Claus entertainers are at a high impotence for a negative outcome if they get COVID."
Related
What does this mean for your normal routine of bringing the kids to the mall to get photos of them crying in Santa's lap? Allen says you should be OK.
"We typically book those jobs in January or February, so we staff those. Most of those are taken care of, although some hours maybe slightly reduced. There will definitely be Santa's in most of the malls. Make sure to check the hours just to be sure."