PROVIDENCE — The Providence Place mall sparkled with holiday lights as Johana Sica prowled its hallways, her hopes tucked in a folder under her arm.

The 16-year-old had “dressed up” in jeans, a red cropped sweater and matching red heels. The shoes were a gift from her mother. That was before her mom was laid off from her $13-an-hour packing job.

Johana thumbed through her folder of job applications and ticked off the list: Taco Bell. Charley’s. Newbury Comics. Levi’s, Forever 21…

In the food court, she marched past the customers lining up at Taco Bell and caught the attention of a young male cashier. He took her application, glanced at it, and smiled.

“See, she put references,” he said to his coworker. “That’s smart.”

“We’ll call you,” the other cashier said.

But would they?

The “Sale” signs in store windows offer a clue. Retailers nationwide are expecting a sharp downturn in holiday sales this season, prompting stores to scale back on their seasonal hiring.

In Rhode Island, where the unemployment rate in October jumped to 9.3 percent, more people looking to make some extra money for the holidays are competing for fewer job openings.

Retail trade accounts for just over 10 percent of Rhode Island’s payroll employment, and so far this year, the state has lost 2,300 retail trade jobs, according to data from the state Department of Labor and Training.

Nationally, retailers have been slashing about 30,000 jobs a month — 11,000 more than the average monthly job losses during the 1990-’91 recession, said Frank Badillo, senior economist at TNS Retail Forward, in Columbus, Ohio. Last month, the monthly toll rose to just over 38,000.

“It will be a very tight market for anyone looking for jobs in retail,” Badillo said, adding, “If you’re a shopper… good luck finding in-store help during the holiday.”

At The Providence Place mall last week, Johana delivered her handwritten job applications to store clerks who were polite but offered no clue if or when she might hear back.

She had made the rounds to a dozen or so stores with two friends earlier in the week, collecting applications and inquiring about job openings. Several of the stores said they don’t hire anyone under 17 or 18.

High school students are always at a disadvantage when they’re looking for work, but now more than ever, said Paul E. Harrington, labor economist and associate director of Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies. The 16- and 17-year-olds are now competing for fewer openings with college students who are home for the holidays and hard up for cash.

Nationally, fewer than 35 percent of the all 16 to 19 year-olds are employed — the lowest level on record, Harrington said. Even during the 1990s recession, he said, about 50 percent of teens in that age group were working.

“A lot of these students at CCRI and RIC are working their way through school,” he said. “And some of these kids [in high school] really are helping to support their families — pay the rent, buy groceries and make a car payment.”

Johana is one of four children. Her mother, Rosa Sica, 40, says that after she got laid off, her daughter told her, “I want to work to help you, mom.”

Rosa Sica’s oldest daughter dropped out of high school and is working at Burger King earning just over $6 an hour. She is 17.

You should get a better-paying job than your sister, Johana recalled her mother saying. So after school last week, Johana rode the bus to the Providence Place mall to find a better job — or any job.

“Not hiring,” said a saleswoman at the resale shop, Second Time Around.

The answer was the same at the Dairy Queen/Orange Julius shop, Payless shoe store, American Eagle Outfitters and Johnny Rockets.

“We have the most applicants that we’ve ever received,” said Lloyd Sugarman, owner of Johnny Rockets, a national burger franchise. Most of the college students the chain hires return each season, he said. And anxiety about the economy keeps people working hard. “They tend not to call out [sick] and be late.”

At Foot Locker’s Warwick mall store, manager Chuck Dorbor said he gets about 25 job applications a week, even though he doesn’t have a single opening. Many of the applicants are high school students, he said, who know Foot Locker hires as young as 16.

Instead of hiring 10 extra workers for the holiday rush, he’s down to 6, all of them college students who worked there last season.

“This year is slow,” he said, “Very slow.”

Down the hall, hair salon owner Louis Finelli draped a customer with a plastic bib.

Hiring? “I’m hiring customers to come in and buy!”

Finelli said that he is sticking with his usual staff of six for the holidays. And next week, he plans to mark down his hair products in hopes of boosting sales.

At Gordon’s Jewelers, store clerks will likely be working longer hours during the holidays. “We have been told that we’re not going to hire any additional holiday help,” said store saleswoman Debra Goodwell. “It ends up you come in at 8 a.m. and you’re supposed to leave at 6 p.m. but you end up staying until 10 p.m.”

Johana Sica is not ready to give up her job search, though. If none of her applications for jobs at the mall pan out, she said, “I might go and apply at Burger King and McDonald’s.” Fewer positions

Retail sales jobsare usually plentiful during the holiday season. But not this year. Retail is among five industries reporting the biggest job losses in Rhode Island in 2008.

Manufacturing: -2,600

Professional and business

services: -2,400

Retail: -2,300

Construction: -1,300

Finance: -1,300

Source: RI Dept. of Labor and Training

larditi@projo.com