Northridge Mall a Hot Prospect for Job-Seekers

More than 2,000 job-seekers braved roasting heat and long lines Saturday as recruiters for the Northridge Fashion Center hurriedly sought to fill 1,000 positions at the mall, which is reopening this month in what is seen as a major step in the San Fernando Valley’s long recuperation from last year’s earthquake.

Job applicants--most in their teens and 20s--began lining up at the nearby Cal State Northridge campus at dawn for a chance to sell chess sets, French fries, lingerie, engagement rings, pantsuits, puppies, romance novels, cowboy boots and a zillion other products at the Valley’s biggest mall.

The 200-store complex was forced to close by the Jan. 17, 1994 quake, and only a few department stores have since reopened.

Samantha Sher, 16, of Granada Hills, came Saturday hoping to land a job--her first--as a clothing sales clerk.

“You get to see the latest fashions and stuff like that,” she said, waiting patiently with friends in a line that stretched 100 yards from CSUN’s Satellite Student Union, where employers conducted interviews because construction work is still under way at the mall. “And it’s fun to tell people when they look good in things.”

Mel Bogart, 65, a retired architect who lives near CSUN, said he just wanted something to occupy his time.

“I’m bored,” he said. “I used to work around a lot of people. Now I don’t see anybody.” Asked what kind of job he was looking for, he smiled and said: “I don’t think I want to be a stock boy. I’m a little past that.”

City and state officials said the mall’s reopening will inject not only more jobs but also more cash into the Valley economy. With the big Northridge complex closed, many Valley residents have been taking their business to malls in Thousand Oaks or Valencia, said one state official.

“The most important thing about this is that it’s a symbol of the recovery,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who stood in line with his 15-year-old daughter as she awaited her chance for a mall job. “Seeing the faces of people who are excited about getting employment really speaks to the recovery.”

For all the property damage and other dislocations caused by the quake, economic researchers have said that Los Angeles’ economy, which was gradually hauling itself out of recession when the temblor struck, continued to strengthen afterward.

Dun & Bradstreet researchers last October said that proprietary credit and other financial information indicated that the rate of local business failures--which rose sharply during the recession from 1990 to 1992 but began to plummet in early 1993--kept dropping through last year.

Similarly, data compiled by the state Employment Development Department shows that in the six months after the quake, the number of jobs in Los Angeles County rose modestly, to 3,706,600 in June from 3,635,600 the week before the quake.

But some of those waiting in line for mall jobs--especially older people--said they have had a hard time finding work in the Valley lately.

“I don’t think it’s a great time to be looking for jobs anywhere in California,” said Rosanna Borsay, a middle-aged Canoga Park resident. She said she has been hunting work for six months since being laid off as an X-ray technologist when the doctor who employed her left the state.

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County, a nonprofit job-creation group, said that although he had no hard figures, he believes thousands of jobs disappeared in the Valley after the quake, especially in the retail, manufacturing and service sectors.

But for many young applicants, their shot at a mall job was their first foray into the local economy--and they were upbeat about their prospects.

While some in line wore suits and ties, others sported earrings, T-shirts and running shoes. One young woman had blue hair; another’s eyebrow was punctured by a small metal ring.

They eagerly scribbled their meager work histories on application forms for Footlocker, Gary’s Tux Shops, San Francisco Cookie Co., Petland, Chess King, Victoria’s Secret, Miller’s Outpost, the Daily Grind and other firms. The bulk of the jobs--many of them part time--involve sales and counter work and carry wages from $4.25 to $7.25 an hour, said a spokeswoman for the state Employment Development Department.

Seventeen-year-old Ben Zimmerman, who attended Granada Hills High School this year, said he wanted to work in a sporting-goods store.

“You get a percentage off the shoes and stuff,” he said. “Plus, it’s air-conditioned. Close to home. Closes early. . . . And it’s not dangerous, not a place to get robbed.”

Some employers interviewed applicants and promised to get back to them later. But others, like A & W Carousel Snacks, hired on the spot.

“So I see you’re a computer whiz,” said A & W representative Jay Coates, scanning the application of 16-year-old Aaron Theodore, who attends the magnet program at Reseda’s Cleveland High School.

“Pretty much,” replied the boy.

“Right now we just have a computerized cash register,” Coates said. “You just push a button and it opens, so that shouldn’t be too hard. . . . We’re looking for people who are not afraid to talk, to stand at the counter and serve the best darned hot dogs to our guests.”

Asked if he had a car, Aaron ventured carefully that he “had a ride.” Nonetheless, he got a job.

Annette Bethers, a mall spokeswoman, said that before the quake, the shopping center employed about 2,500 people in non-holiday periods. With several stores expanding, the post-quake work force will be up to 3,000, she said.

Although a handful of large department stores reopened last November, said Bethers, most other retailers will unshutter their outlets July 17. All of the mall’s merchants are expected to be open by early August.

She said mall employers hired back many pre-quake workers, but that others found jobs elsewhere or left the area.

The mall added new escalators and elevators, as well as a 25,000-square-foot food court and several new upscale retail stores in a post-quake renovation and expansion costing tens of millions of dollars, she said.

The complex also incorporates new safety features, including poured-in-place parking structures, shatterproof glass and special building frames that make it “one of the safest structures in Southern California,” according to a mall press release.