Beginning with a homestand this weekend, Minnesota Twins games at Target Field will be staffed with local hires rather than workers brought in from surrounding states.

Delaware North Sportservice, which manages concessions at the ballpark, announced Friday that recent job fairs had reaped 160 new employees, surpassing the goal of hiring an additional 150 workers. The company also has another 500 candidates who have applied and are in the screening process for culinary-related positions as well as in-seat vendors, stand attendants, servers, bussers and dishwashers.

"This new wave of employees eliminates any future need to bus in out-of-state workers," a news release said. A spokesman for the company also said the new pool of workers will eliminate the need to use day laborers to fill slots on game days.

The new hires are expected to be on the job for the series against the Detroit Tigers this weekend.

Pay for many of the jobs starts at $12.30 an hour with shifts ranging from six to nine hours per game. Employees have flexibility in choosing which games to work.

Delaware North has had difficulty filling openings since last summer when it brought in day laborers whose performance isn't up to the standards of staff workers. Despite a push to hire more local employees, Delaware North started the season by busing in workers from its other facilities in Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago.

Twins games are staffed by paid workers and volunteers from nonprofits who get a percentage of concession sales for their organizations. About half the staffers come from the nonprofits. Between the paid and volunteer staff, Target Field had a pool of about 700 workers. The recent hirings have pushed the number to 860.

Delaware North is going to keep hiring. Interested applicants can find job descriptions and applications at SportserviceTargetField.com.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747

Twitter: @rochelleolson