Christmas '95:
Santas and Part - Time Elves Are Scarce This Season
By Joseph Pereira
12/06/1995
The Wall Street Journal
Page B1
(Copyright (c) 1995, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
Santa got his wish this year -- a pay raise, with a nice hotel suite thrown in for the holidays.
In this particular case, Santa is James Boyce, a paunchy Louisianian with a natural, fluffy white beard. Last year, he
made a little over minimum wage playing Santa Claus in his home state. This year, he earns close to $30 an hour hoho-hoing at the Dover Mall in Dover, Del.
Mr. Boyce got his 60-hour-a-week job in Dover through Western Staff Services Inc., one of the nation's largest
suppliers of mall Santas . Explaining his good fortune, he says: "Thank you for a low unemployment rate."
This year, holiday-season workers of all kinds are benefiting from a labor shortage that is forcing companies to pay
extra for Christmas crews. Unemployment in Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle is at or below 5%
-- a level at which economists say virtually anyone who wants to work can find a job. In smaller cities like Omaha,
Neb., and Madison, Wis., the rates drop off sharply to less than 2%.
Stores need a million extra workers to handle the shopping rush, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. They
also must vie with restaurants, package deliverers, caterers, greenhouse operators, hotels and ski resorts -- which
also have a million temporary positions to fill at this time of year.
Retailers say they are filling positions. But many are doing so only by enticing the already employed to take second
jobs or by appealing to retirees. South Shore Plaza, a mall in Braintree, Mass., sponsored a weeklong job fair to
recruit holiday helpers last month. "Not too many out-of-work people are out there, but we're getting some working
moms and dads to moonlight," says Sally Hertz, the mall's marketing manager.
Western Staff, which also supplies companies with temporary clerical and managerial help, recently went looking
for able bodies on "seniors night" at a bowling alley in Denver. It also plans a visit to the local Elks Club. "The days
of running an ad and waiting for the phone to ring are over," says Michael Marques, National Program director of
Western's Santa Division.
Filene's Basement Corp., a retail discounter in the Northeast, hires about 700 workers for the holidays and was
looking for assistant managers, cashiers and stockroom clerks. The Hyatt Regency in Denver is offering $10 an hour
for banquet servers, more than it has paid in years.
"Help-wanted signs were a common part of the Christmas scene in malls over the Thanksgiving weekend," notes
Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. Though retailers were adequately staffed for the season
opener, many managers were conducting job interviews in the back rooms, he says.
Santas are among the biggest beneficiaries of the labor shortage. Even though Santa recruiters say they will
consider women -- preferably ones with deep voices -- for the position, female interest is virtually nonexistent. "This
is one of the last male bastions," says Patty Barbour, a Western Staff spokeswoman. "No one wants to be Old St.
Nicole."
Desperate though the malls may be for Santas , suppliers still exercise extreme caution in picking their red-suited
representatives. Criminal background checks and at least two personal references are standard. Training, generally
about four to six hours at hiring agencies, stresses the importance of watching Saturday-morning cartoons, when
most toys and games are advertised ("Santa has to speak the lingo," says Stacey Liken, a Santa trainer in Baltimore).
Each year, retailers and others hire about 20,000 Santas . Western alone dispatches 2,500 to malls across America.
Pay for beginners has generally started at about minimum wage. But employment agencies say the labor shortage
has bumped up starting salaries for novices to about $8 an hour. Among seasoned Santas , those with real beards are
among the best paid in the business.
Girth is also an asset for the Dover Mall's bearded Mr. Boyce. At 5 feet 11, he tips the scales at 260 pounds. "One
good thing about being Santa Claus, is you can eat anything you want," observes Mr. Boyce's wife, Marilyn, who
has the job of Mrs. Claus at the Dover Mall.
Corporate and private-party Santas can make even more than Mr. Boyce. Dixie Lee, owner of Dixie Doodle
Entertainment in Orange County, Calif., says she pays her top-performing and best-looking Santas -- many of them
trained actors and dancers -- about $100 an hour. But she expects them to have a ready repertoire of carols, tell an
engaging Christmas story or two, spout one-liners, and have "personalities like light bulbs that can brighten a room."
Dixie Doodle gets $150 an hour for a one-man Santa show, $250 with elves.