Target plans to begin hiring 1,200 people next week to staff the retailer's two planned O'ahu stores, and expects to recruit another 400 employees in May for a Kailua, Kona, store on the Big Island.

The company has scheduled the first mass-hiring event for Dec. 18 to 21 at the Hawai'i Convention Center, and will make same-day job offers to as many people as it can to fill a broad range of positions from stock clerks to managers.

"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," Rob Parke, Target's district team chief, said in a statement.

The company's hiring plan comes at an opportune time for many Hawai'i workers who have been caught in a wave of company layoffs this year, including many in recent months.

Among workforces that have been cut since the economy began slipping earlier this year are: 1,900 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.; and 70 at Hawaiian Dredging.

The layoffs have helped push the state unemployment rate to a 7-year high of 4.5 percent in October, the most recent month for which statistics are available. A year earlier, Hawai'i's unemployment rate was 2.8 percent, which was generally considered more than full employment.

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