Give Seasonal Work to City Teens

When I read yesterday's article in the Globe about the lack of seasonal workers and the impact the worker shortfall will have on local tourism, I was reminded of something I read a while ago which presented the idea of providing summer jobs in tourist areas to city teens looking for summer work. Cape Cod is a prime example of a region which could supply thousands of jobs to the thousands of Boston area teens who look for work each year. Many of the kids have probably been to summer camp before, so they're already familiar with being away from home during the summer. Linguistic barriers would be nil and transportation expenses would be little more than a round-trip on the fast ferry or highway bus. Best of all, it would be a solution by state residents for state residents. With high school guidance offices typically serving as the clearinghouse for  disseminating information about various opportunities, there's no reason employers couldn't conduct a hiring process the same way. In this post-9/11, fence-along-the-border, see-something-say-something society it's only going to get harder to bring people in to work. Teens may turn out to be a tough sell, but at the right wage and decent incentives, they could be a solution to the seasonal worker shortage problem.

Comments

[Ron Newman]

Good idea for the summer, but you can't really employ teens this way during the winter ski season.

[3D]

I agree. I meant specifically for the summer.