Help wanted: Summer hires
Tourist destinations face staff shortages due to restrictions on seasonal foreign workers
BOSTON — As vaccinated Americans start to get comfortable traveling again, popular summer destinations are anticipating a busy season.
But hotel, restaurant and retail store owners warn that staffing shortages exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic could force them to limit occupancy, curtail hours and services or shut down facilities entirely just as they’re starting to bounce back from a grim year.
The problem, they say, is twofold: The annual influx of seasonal foreign workers has stalled in places because of the pandemic. Businesses have also struggled to attract U.S. workers, even as many have redoubled their efforts to hire locally amid high unemployment.
“It’s the ‘Hunger Games’ for these employers, fighting for getting these guest workers into the country while also trying everything they can to recruit domestically,” said Brian Crawford, an executive vice president for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a Washington, D.C.based industry group. “It’s really frustrating. They’re trying to regain their footing after this disastrous pandemic but they just can’t catch a break.”
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden let expire a controversial ban on temporary worker visas such as the J-1 program for students and the H-2B program for nonagricultural laborers imposed by former President Donald Trump. But American embassies and consulates remain closed or severely short-staffed in many countries. The U.S. has also imposed restrictions on travelers from countries including Brazil, Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom because of the emergence of new virus variants or rising COVID-19 cases.
Advocates for the J-1 program, which brings in about 300,000 foreign students annually, urged the State Department in a letter last week to exempt the applicants from the travel bans and provide other forms of relief so they can start their summer jobs.
Ilir Zherka, head of the Alliance for International Exchange, which sent the letter along with more than 500 supporting groups and companies, argued the J-1 program doesn’t just benefit local economies, but also helps strengthen national security by promoting understanding and appreciation of U.S. culture.
Supporters of the H-2B program, meanwhile, have renewed their call to overhaul the program, which is capped at 66,000 visas per fiscal year. The Biden administration, citing the summer demand from employers, said it will approve an additional 22,000 H-2B visas, but lawmakers from New England and other regions that rely on the visas for tourism, landscaping, forestry, fish processing and other seasonal trades say that’s still inadequate.
“That’s infinitesimal. It isn’t anywhere close to the need,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, a Democrat representing Cape Cod, an area heavily dependent on tourism that relies on a summertime influx of foreign workers.
Business owners and experts say there are myriad reasons why U.S. citizens aren’t rushing to respond to the job boom, from COVID-19-related worries to child care issues or simply a decision to collect unemployment benefits, which have been increased and extended through the summer season in most places.