BUENA VISTA (CBSLA.com) — Knott’s Berry Farm is holding a hiring event Friday for its 40^th Annual Halloween Haunt at Knott’s Scary Farm.

KNX 1070′s Pete Demetriou reports Knott’s is expected to hire 1,000 “monsters” for the 24-night event starting Sept. 21.

Friday is one of two job fairs being held. The final rounds of auditions are scheduled for Monday.

The events are expected to draw over 1,000 applicants looking for work in the wake of a new jobs report released Friday morning showing the US economy has added 163,000 jobs in July, the highest number in the past five months.

However, the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent – a statistical rise that is all too real for underemployed applicants like Mathew Limblad.

“I actually am a full-time musician, so I tour the country playing music and am currently working on a solo album, so this is kind of a fun seasonal pick-up job for me,” said Limblad.

California’s unemployment rate is even higher than the national rate at 10.7 percent.