Holiday season offers seasonal work for Chicago workforce

Holiday season offers seasonal work for Chicago workforce
Holidays like Halloween create seasonal work opportunities. AP Photo
Holiday season offers seasonal work for Chicago workforce
Holidays like Halloween create seasonal work opportunities. AP Photo

Holiday season offers seasonal work for Chicago workforce

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Beginning in October, some of the city’s previously vacant storefronts became occupied and started to look a bit more festive. As Halloween approaches, pop-up costume shops began to fill in strip malls and retail corridors throughout the city. And once all the masks, wigs and costumes clear off the shelves, Christmas goodies will take their place. The year-end holiday goods will hit the shelves around Thanksgiving; and together with fall holidays, retailers anticipate an increase in shopping patterns. But what does it mean for the jobs market? How significant is seasonal work in Chicago’s overall economy? Are the jobs merely seasonal or can they be longer term? David Greising, deputy editor at Chicago News Cooperative, spoke with Eight Forty-Eight to asses the effects seasonal jobs could have on Chicago’s work force.

Music Button: Wilco, “Not For The Season Alt. Version”, from the bootleg album YHF Demos, (unreleased)