Mashantucket - Hundreds of people are expected to shop for employment next month at a job fair at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Despite the location, none of the openings will have any connection to gaming.

Instead, jobs in retail will be up for grabs, with representatives of many of the tenants scheduled to occupy the 80-store Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods on hand to size up candidates, distribute applications and collect resumes. The mall, linking Foxwoods' Grand Pequot Tower and The Fox Tower, is set to open May 21.

"It's on schedule," Annette DeBois, Foxwoods' vice president of retail development and operations, said this week. "In fact, a few of the tenants have started their build-outs."

She said the 300,000-square-foot mall will provide 900 full- and part-time jobs, drawing from an employment market that extends to Hartford, New Haven and Providence.

Though Tanger has yet to identify the stores that will staff booths at the job fair, a partial list of mall tenants includes American Eagle Outfitters, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Brooks Brothers, Calvin Klein, Coach, Fossil, Gap, H&M, J. Crew, LOFT, Michael Kors, Nike, Skechers, Steve Madden, Talbots and Tommy Hilfiger.

John Beauregard, executive director of the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board, called the timing of the job fair "tremendous news for the region."

In a recent employment analysis, Beauregard found that although the Norwich-New London labor market added 2,800 jobs over the last five months of 2014, many people in the region are still looking for work.

"I think they're going to be really pleased with the results of the job fair," he said, referring to Tanger tenants. "It hits eastern Connecticut at a really good time in terms of sustaining some of the momentum we're starting to gather. There's still a lot of upside to the availability in the labor market. There's a lot of talent out there, too."

Beauregard said the region's retail shopping market can accommodate the Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods without coming close to a saturation point. The presence of the mall, whose tenants are mostly apparel outlets, has caused some changes in the rest of Foxwoods' retail landscape. Since her arrival three years ago, DeBois has pared the number of stores on the casino's shopping concourse while introducing new outlets featuring gifts and accessories.

An Omega Watch Company store is among the most recent additions, while Mario Barth's King Ink, a tattoo studio, will open this spring.

The job fair will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. March 19 at the Foxwoods Premier Ballroom.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck