NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It's a common occurrence for businesses to be desperate for employees right now. For places with clusters of stores – like malls – getting creative is key to getting good candidates in the door.
"We are actually having a job fair to support our retailers and restaurants, along with other businesses that are in need of hiring several people," Cheryl Ringgold, Director of Marketing and Business Development at McCain Mall in North Little Rock, said.
When you've got a pretty common problem like this, it usually takes an uncommon solution to help solve it.
Plenty of places have had job fairs to help find workers, but doing this event in the food court at the mall makes it more visible and allows more people to see open positions Ringgold said.
You may head to the mall for shopping, but the over 20 businesses represented Saturday afternoon hope it'll lead to an application.
"If you come in and let us know that you have experience and you have your own transportation, you'll probably get hired on the spot," Kevin Darker, Senior Manager at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse, said.
That wasn't an uncommon thing to hear Saturday afternoon.
While these businesses need workers, but there's less candidates than positions available.
"There's so many jobs available, but not too many candidates," Madeline Blandford, recruiting for Allied Universal, said. "It's definitely one-sided right now. They can walk around and they have all these options and we just have one of them. We're just kind of fighting for one person, it's definitely a one-sided struggle right now."
That feeling isn't lost on applicants.
"Something that you love doing, and the right thing that's meant for you. Yeah, that's kind of difficult," Ireland Weaver, an attendee of the job fair Saturday, said. "But there's a lot of options, and it's not extremely difficult."
While the options are high, the need to fill those positions is high as well.
While they wished for more applicants to show up Saturday, any applicant is a step towards filling a spot.
"Everyone knows right now it's very difficult to get people to apply. On a normal basis I might interview two to three people and at the end of the day that's all I have," Blandford said. "So to have five, that's more than average."
Ringgold said the mall is considering having another job fair in the fall to prepare for the holiday shopping season.