The help wanted signs are up along the Jersey Shore as businesses face another challenging year of hiring enough employees for the big summer season.
Some are even offering generous bonuses and previously unheard of incentives to try and entice prospective workers.
These may still be quiet times in Downtown Ocean City and other Jersey Shore towns, but business owners are busy trying to staff up ahead of the summer rush.
“It is crunch time, we're opening in May. We do need all positions covered," Burger Boyz and Fruit Freeze co-owner Danielle Steinberg said.
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Steinberg's new burgers and ice cream restaurant held a job fair a few weeks ago and the turnout was not exactly what she had hoped for.
“I thought we'd have some more people," Steinberg explained.
The ongoing challenge of hiring enough workers for the critical summer season is prompting some Jersey Shore businesses to step up their game.
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Some are going $17 an hour outright when they're starting," Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director Michele Gillian told NBC10.
Douglass Candies, with locations in Stone Harbor and Wildwood, is trying to sweeten the deal with some serious perks including a $1,000 sign-on bonus, a year-end bonus of up to $2,000 and even 401(k) matching.
"A lot of students are not participating in the working market," Gillian said. "We hope that schools and parents especially are going to encourage their children to get out and get a job."
Meanwhile, New Jersey Business and Industry Association's president Michelle Siekerka said, "let's recruit from the Midwest and say come to the Jersey Shore for the summer. And if we have the opportunity to provide housing or housing stipend for them…those are the other things that they're doing as well.”
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is looking to fill more than 800 peak-season part-time positions for state parks, forests and historic sites.
"This year, we've taken the step to bump our base rates by $1, trying to stay competitive, recognizing that minimum wage in New Jersey has also increased," John Cecil of NJ's DEP said.
The Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce is holding a job fair later this month. At least 50 businesses are taking part so far which is almost double the amount they had signed up just a couple of years ago.
