Seasonal job interviewees, it's time to play up your best guest-greeting and gift-wrapping skills: The battle for holiday employment is brutal.

With unemployment at lofty levels and employed folks looking to bolster budgets by taking second jobs, the competition for holiday posts is fierce.

"There are a lot more people looking for jobs this year," says Jennifer Grasz, a spokeswoman for online job site http://www.CareerBuilder.com. For instance, laid-off employees are competing with those who want to pad income after being hit with furloughs and pay cuts, she says.

About 1 in 8 employed workers plan to take a seasonal job, according to a http://www.CareerBuilder.com survey. (CareerBuilder is owned by Tribune, McClatchy, Microsoft and USA Today parent Gannett.)

More than half of employers expect to get more applications than last year, according to a seasonal hiring survey by http://www.SnagAJob.com. At the same time, those managers expect to hire 16 percent fewer hourly workers.

For the unemployed who do secure a holiday position, the job could pay for years: One-third of companies are likely to hire a seasonal worker for a full-time position, according to the CareerBuilder survey.