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http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002420.html?categoryid=18&cs=1Hiring freeze spreads
Hollywood odd jobs drying up
By MARC GRASER, JUSTIN KROLLMore Articles:
Hollywood is feeling the chills of a hiring freeze.
Jobs that the creative community once relied on to stay afloat during rough times are themselves starting to dry up in this recession.
That includes everything from directing assignments at commercial production houses to positions at restaurants, bars, hotels and retailers.
Even temp agencies have little to offer job seekers.
"Most employers now are getting rid of someone and, instead of calling us, they are just having someone else they employ do two or more jobs," said one temp agent, who hasn't seen the entertainment industry this deep in the doldrums since the period after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Even then the job market wasn't as bleak as it is now, the agent said. "I'm getting calls every day and am simply unable to fill everybody's needs," she said.
That's bad news for the hundreds of staffers who have been handed pinkslips at the major studios, networks, tenpercenteries and various shingles around town over the past year.