Ready. Aim. Hire.

Next week retailer Target Corp. will begin hiring up to 1,200 people to staff its two O'ahu stores to open in March, followed by another 400 employees to be hired in May for a store on the Big Island.

Target has scheduled a mass-hiring event for Dec. 18 to 21 at the Hawai'i Convention Center from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and will make same-day job offers to as many people as it can.

"We've got the application process down to an art, and ideally we would like to fill all 1,200 positions in those four days," said Rob Parke, Target's district team chief.

The hiring binge by the nation's second-largest discount retailer could provide some welcome relief to the hundreds of Hawai'i workers laid off since the economy began slipping earlier this year.

Among workforce cuts this year: 1,900 people at Aloha Airlines; 274 at Maui Land & Pineapple; 169 at Hawaii Medical Center; 130 at DFS Group; 120 at Molokai Ranch; 118 at Servo Pacific; 91 at The Honolulu Advertiser; 85 at Weyerhaeuser Co.; 70 at Hawaiian Dredging; and 38 at Palama Meat Co.

Other labor reductions have come at other companies through smaller layoffs, furloughs and reduced hours.

"A lot of people are looking for work," said Beth Busch, executive director of Job Quest, the state's largest job fair. "In this economy, (Target's hiring) is perfect timing."

Layoffs helped push the state unemployment rate to a seven-year high of 4.5 percent in October, the most recent month for which statistics are available.

October's unemployment rate equates to 30,250 unemployed in a labor force of 665,350. That compares with 2.8 percent unemployment, or 18,200 unemployed out of 647,300, in October 2007.

VARIETY OF POSITIONS

Target will be one of only a few companies to hire large numbers of people this year. Other major employment additions included 162 at Whole Foods Market, which opened a Kahala store in September, and 600 at Nordstrom, which opened at Ala Moana Center in March.

Nordstrom, however, also was among employers cutting back on staff to adjust to economic circumstances, laying off 30 employees in its first two months of operation after 70 quit for various reasons.

Jobs being offered by Target include a wide variety of positions, such as stock clerks, cashiers, shift managers, security and human resources. Both full-time and part-time jobs are available. Work will start for many hires Jan. 15.

Parke said entry-level jobs typically pay in the $10 to $12 an hour range, while supervisory positions pay about $15 an hour or more.

Standard benefits for Target employees include a 10 percent merchandise discount and 100 percent healthcare premium paid by the company.

Parke said it's hard to predict how many people will turn out, but given the state of the economy Target is preparing for as many as 5,000 people to apply over the four-day event.

When Nordstrom began taking applications largely through an online process in January when the unemployment rate was 3.0 percent, the luxury department store company received about 1,600 applications.

Target's two planned O'ahu stores in Kapolei and Salt Lake are expected to open in March. The Big Island store in Kailua, Kona, is slated to open in July.

"We've been working on this for so long," Parke said. "We're really excited to get going."