Providence, Rhode Island- There’s a new audience for the Foxy Lady’s come-hither ads: the unemployed.
One of the state’s best-known strip clubs is hosting a job fair on Saturday, promising to hire as many as 25 new employees as managers, dancers, DJs, bartenders and bouncers. The club has about 75 employees.
Business is not exactly booming, and many of the new employees will replace existing staff, office manager Lori Savickas told The Providence Journal Wednesday. But the staggering unemployment rate in Rhode Island has created a big talent pool the Foxy Lady hopes to tap.
More than 10 percent of jobseekers in Rhode Island cannot find work, the highest level in 30 years. One result, Savickas said, is that long spells of unemployment are leading some Rhode Islanders to shed their hangups about the adult entertainment industry.
“With the way unemployment is right now, there are a lot of people looking for a job who normally wouldn’t come to the Foxy Lady,” Savickas said. “They’re just hungry to start working somewhere. They might find out that it is totally different than they expected.”
The Foxy Lady, using ads in The Providence Journal and The Providence Phoenix, hopes to find “new faces” to re-energize the business, which has seen competition from newer nightclubs increase over the years.
Overqualified jobseekers might not find the Foxy Lady a place to spend a career, Savickas said. But former employees have used their experience at the Chalkstone Avenue strip club to land jobs in more traditional segments of the hospitality industry.
For the club, known for its showgirls and ” Legs and Eggs” Friday brunch, the new blood could help liven up the atmosphere and draw in recession-weary customers hesitant to leave the house. “Everyone is choosy right now about where they spend their money because they don’t have the money to spend,” Savickas said.