“For hire” signs stream like holiday ribbon in the display windows of retail stores from Cabazon to Indio.

Decked in interview clothes, Stephanie Davis took a job fair last week at the James A. Venable Community Center in Cabazon as a sign the holiday season will be a tipping point in the recession.

Agents from Saks Fifth Avenue, Movado, Levi Strauss & Co. and Lacoste took applications on Tuesday from Davis and nearly 1,500 others in a community ravaged by 33 percent unemployment.

The locale is a hairpin turn away from the outlet malls at Cabazon along Interstate 10 that attract thousands of shoppers from the Los Angeles and Palm Springs markets.

Crowds have thinned at the outlets over the past 11 months.

But with foot traffic building again, Dena Molles of Polo Ralph Lauren is looking to hire 30 people for jobs that could spill into 2010. Merchants manning tables around her offered anecdotes that October sales were up 6 percent from 2008.

“We're expecting a great fourth quarter,'' said Eilene Fletcher, district manager of Wilsons Leather.