It used to be a simple thing to pick up a part-time retail job during the holidays to pay for those extra gifts and sundries.

Not this year.

At Sur La Table, an upscale kitchen store in the SouthSide Works, the staff is inundated with culinary experts willing to take a seasonal job.

Nearby, Joseph-Beth Booksellers has former bookstore owners, librarians and even bankers applying to sell books.

And Target at the Waterfront development in Homestead is seeing college graduates, each with a decade or two of work experience, applying to be cashiers.

As the seasonal hiring season kicks in, it's starting to seem like a line from a Depression-era song (the 1930's Depression, not this downturn): "I'm getting an education to run a filling station because they never take anything but college men."

A review of the employment numbers by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. in Chicago showed that last year seasonal hiring was down almost 47 percent from 2007, and the firm said hiring managers have been taking a wait-and-see attitude this year.

Nationally, Sur La Table is hiring 2,000 people for the holiday season, which will effectively double its work force. In Pittsburgh, the staff already has picked up 10 people, which has doubled its size, and plans call for hiring another eight people.

Susanna Linse, a company spokeswoman, said those 2,000 openings across the country have brought in 10,000 applicants, making the overall odds of getting a retail job at Sur La Table about the same as getting into a top-ranked college.

Kimberly Love, Target's executive team leader of human resources in Homestead, said just a few years ago there would be at most 20 applicants on a Saturday, the busiest day for applications. "Now we get 48, 50, 60 a day, just through the Internet system alone," she said.

Is all hope lost for those who do not have a Ph.D. in fashion design and want to work at a clothing store?

"No," said Cathy McCarthy, a vice president at SnagAJob.com, a Web site that advertises hourly jobs that are typically service or lightly skilled. While holiday hiring is tight -- a survey paid for by SnagAJob showed overall hiring would be down 16 percent this season -- there are jobs opening up that weren't there in the summer.

Ms. McCarthy said the number of applications for any single job increased 21 percent on the site, and six million unique visitors looked at jobs on SnagAJob just last month.

The demographics of the visitors also showed that more older people with more education are looking at hourly jobs right now than in previous years.

Still, she said, managers are more interested in hiring someone who has a positive attitude than someone with all the needed skills. Basically, the thinking is new hires can be taught anything but how to be polite and upbeat.

Ms. Love agreed with that entirely. She said Target wanted a whole range of people, but mostly people who can move up in the company.

That's good news for Jonathan Menefee, 21, of Manchester, who has spent the last three weeks hitting the pavement. Mr. Menefee has a high school degree and experience as a laborer on construction sites, but there aren't many construction jobs right now.

"I'll take a seasonal job and if I can, work my way to full time," he said after applying for more than 30 jobs recently.

At Joseph-Beth Booksellers, at least 10 people a day walk in asking about employment. Chris Rickert, the general manager, has been there since the store opened five years ago. She first noticed more people looking for work in January and said the store had been flooded since then with good people with great experience seeking jobs.

"I wish I could hire twice as many people as I can," she said.

Ms. McCarthy said the seasonal jobs available aren't just in retail. UPS has openings for 50,000 temporary workers nationwide to sort packages and work as drivers helpers.

Moon-based FedEx Ground is planning to hire 14,000 temporary workers to help move some of the 50 million packages that will pass through its system the week of Dec. 14 alone. Patrick Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the company, said part-time and full-time workers also would work extra hours to help handle the holiday load.

The SnagAJob survey also found that 51 percent of the seasonal hires will be offered a full-time job after the holiday season. "This is a good chance to get your foot in the door," Ms. McCarthy said.

Another good move, she said, is for job seekers to reapply to a business where they have already worked. If the parting was amicable, it means the manager won't have to completely retrain them.

This is already happening at Target, where Ms. Love said she has heard from people who used to work part-time at Target but now have full-time jobs at the Dish Network call center in McKeesport. The company announced last week it will close the call center early next year, eliminating those jobs.

Experience also helps at Sur Le Table, where Ms. Linse said while many people who will be hired either have professional culinary experience or are enrolled in cooking schools, that does not preclude hiring a passionate amateur chef: particularly a passionate amateur chef who shops at Sur La Table.

She said Sur La Table wants to provide exceptional customer service by people who really know the products.

And as Ms. McCarthy said, a positive attitude helps.

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