‘It’s just downright impossible’
Tourism industry desperate to recruit seasonal workers
It’s almost crunch time for Anthony Catanoso.
Catanoso, president of Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, an amusement park on the resort’s boardwalk, is busy preparing for Memorial Day crowds, but the real busy season doesn’t start until next month.
“That’s when the crunch will come. Because right now, our locals, like every year, can handle our preseason and postseason, and our single-shift operation,” Catanoso said. “But once we go full time and we’re running at 14 hours a day, then that’s when you need the reinforcements.”
Those reinforcements are in short supply this year, and Catanoso isn’t the only business owner struggling to fill positions.
Seasonal businesses across South Jersey are facing an employment crisis, many said, not unlike restaurants, convenience stores and other industries across the Lehigh Valley. There are ample positions available, but applications just aren’t coming in.
It’s the culmination of several factors, business owners said: unemployment benefits allow people to be choosier about where they work; rules restrict minors who want to work; a slow revival of the J-1 visa program, which allows foreign students to temporarily work in the U.S.; a lack of child care; plus fears of the coronavirus.
At Steel Pier, there’s generally a staff of 300, with 140 of them foreign students, Catanoso said.
In April, President Joe Biden let expire a controversial ban on temporary worker visas, such
as the J-1 program and the H-2B program for nonagricultural laborers, imposed by President Donald Trump. Typically, the J-1 program brings in about 300,000 foreign students each year.
But American embassies and consulates remain closed or severely short-staffed in many countries, creating a backlog of applications.
Denise Beckson, vice president of human resources at Morey’s Piers and Beachfront Water Parks in Wildwood, said, “This year is worse than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s beyond difficult; it’s just downright impossible” to fill positions.
The federal State Department isn’t prioritizing foreign students coming to work, she said.
“Those students are not getting in near the normal numbers,” Beckson said. “And that’s a program that a lot of shore communities rely on. New Jersey has over 5,200 students a year, and those numbers are going to be, at this point, really not even measurable.”
Across Cape May County, as many as 2,500 students come in through the J-1 program each year, said Vicki Clark, president of the county’s Chamber of Commerce.
“When these students are here, their priority is to work their jobs — they work front-line positions,” she said. “They’re here to learn as much as they can about living and working in the United States, perfect their use of the English language, understand American culture. They have a return date. They’re going back because they’re university students.”
The additional $300 in federal unemployment benefits is earmarked to run through Sept. 6, she said, encompassing the entire season.
“For some people, on top of their state unemployment benefits, you know, it’s paying them more to stay home than it is to return to work,” she said.
There’s also a critical need for child care, as many women dropped out of the workforce to take on those roles, she added.
There are 1,500 positions at Morey’s Piers each year, but fewer than half have been filled so far, Beckson said. They’re trying to pull students in from nearby technical schools, as well as tapping Broadway and cruise ship performers who are out of work.
Last year, they had full-time staff work seasonal positions, which may have to happen again this year.
“Our CFO was out there selling tickets, our director of marketing was running a ride, our carpentry lead was working a grill,” Beckson said. “So there’ll be potentially some elements of our full-time staff filling entry roles for this season.”
Another struggle is that minor-labor laws and the processes for working papers are antiquated, Beckson said.
“For instance, a 15-year-old can’t work later than 7 p.m.,” she said. “But they can be at a school dance later than that or sporting event or babysitting or hanging out on the boardwalk, but they can’t be working. And so some of these rules — it’s time for some review with current social context in mind.”
Catanoso said most of the local people he hires are limited on hours because they’re minors.
“So you find yourself like last year. On top of everything else with the pandemic, we found ourselves closing earlier, opening later, keeping rides closed, or food kiosks closed, or game kiosks closed because there’s not enough help or not enough help that can stay late enough to operate the stuff,” he said. “I would say it’s a double-edged sword, but it’s more like a triple-edged sword.”
And parents want their teens to work, he said.
“It’s not a salt mine, you know,” Catanoso said. “They’re running rides and making food and doing games — they enjoy the work.”
For businesses, especially those that rely on the summer tourism season, the employment crisis is another blow after struggling to survive pandemic-induced shutdowns last year.
“This is the second wave for businesses that could really create harm to their recovery,” Clark said. “We are seeing businesses cut back on their hours, cut back on their days of operation, delay their opening, which is not good for our tourism economy.”
Businesses are trying to recruit workers from Pennsylvania, enticing them with a summer job at the shore. There are several that offer accommodations, too: rooms are available due to the lag in J-1 workers.
“This could be an opportunity for other people in the United States who want to come and live here and work in Cape May County,” Clark said. “We’re trying very hard to have a strong recovery for our tourism industry, but we can’t do that without our workforce. … We are very well positioned to have a strong recovery in the tourism industry for the summer of 2021 and we really need our workforce in order for that to become a reality.”
Catanoso said he continues to put the word out about open positions, hoping word-of-mouth helps, but it’s a dire situation.
“My family and I’ve had the pier for 30 years,” he said. “The last two years have been pretty bad. The most challenging years? Yes.”