Among those companies that are having trouble filling open jobs is one that provides Santas to shopping malls and stores for the holiday season.
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“We’re not quite as bad as the rest of the country, but we still could use many Santas to fill all of the jobs this year. It’s really going to be a spring-back year to normalcy we’re seeing with our retail partners,” said Mitch Allen, founder and "Head Elf" for HireSanta.
He told the WBBM Noon Business Hour on Friday that finding enough people to work as Santa is a challenge every year.
Allen says the current shortage of workers is all the more challenging because his firm insists on hiring only people who look have their own gray beards and don't need padding.
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Last year during the holiday season, mall Santas got crafty in order to socially distance. Many locations required reservations, temperature checks, and mask wearing.
In Richmond, one Santa was positioned inside of an acrylic snow globe while Colorado malls had him seated behind a plexiglass barrier.
Many locations also used their on-staff elves to help sanitize between visits, the Washington Post reports.
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