10,000 Jobs On Offer At Vancouver Olympics

With only four months until the start of Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games open, event organisers need 10,000 workers.

Among the positions required to be filled are security guards, parking lot attendants, cleaners, sales clerks, bus drivers, cooks, servers, and a host of specialised trades.

Most are short-term employment, starting in January and ending at the end of the Winter Games on February 28. Some continue on through the Paralympics, which are scheduled two weeks later.

Hilarie and Grant Cousar, founders of Whistler Cooks, made a deal with organisers to provide food services at both the Nordic and Whistler Sliding Centres. Which means the small company has doubled its staff to 200.

Grant Cousar said that the preparations have been going quite well, but hiring a large number of employees has proven to be a challenge.

Staffing company Sodexo is currently looking for 900 people capable of fulfilling its agreements in housekeeping and cleaning as well as food and beverage provision for the athletes in both Vancouver and in Whistler.

Sodexo’s senior vice-president of corporate development Jon Kristjanson said that they expected that 90% of the jobs to filled directly from manpower within British Columbia. He added that the manpower company has rented a hotel to house its staff as well as cruise ships in the town of Squamish.

Meanwhile, a company called Adecco is looking to hire 120 people to work as ticket agents at Tickets.com for Olympic venues in Vancouver and Whistler. Furthermore, British Columbia’s Transit Commission needs more than 200 workers just for Whistler.

Officials have said that people capable of speaking both French and English are particularly in demand.

The salaries will vary between CA$12.87 to CA$30 per hour.

Tags: Adecco, Event Jobs, Olympic Jobs, Sodexo, Tickets.com, Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games

Category: Event Jobs