Race for amusement park help heats up

Even though temperatures in southern New England soon will be dipping into the 20s, the race is on at Lake Compounce, Quassy and Six Flags to sign up thousands of water park attendants, ride operators and ticket clerks for the approaching season.

All three amusement parks are making a push to recruit workers early this year, emphasizing that February and March applicants can get a wider choice of job assignments than those who wait until opening day.

To fill a combined total of 4,300 jobs, Six Flags, Lake Compounce and Quassy are offering perks ranging from staff parties and free tickets to discounted meals or even tuition assistance. But like many amusement parks around the country, they’re expecting the labor market will ease a bit this year and won’t be offering the COVID-era signing bonuses and retention incentives.

Six Flags is hosting a hiring fair this weekend as it seeks to fill 3,000 jobs, while Lake Compounce is conducting an online recruitment drive to get 1,000 workers and Quassy is seeking 300.

All three parks started reaching out to their workers from last year with new job offers, and Six Flags is offering an expedited system for 2022 employees who want to come back. Their push now is to attract college students and older high school students so they’re ready to gradually ramp up staffing from opening day through the start of the core summer season.

“So far this year our return rate has been pretty strong. We already have 200 or 300 returning team members as of early February and I’m sure that number will grow,” said Lynsey Winters, Lake Compounce’s marketing director.

Lake Compounce, which straddles the Bristol and Southington line, and Middlebury-based Quassy need enough workers in place for opening day on April 29. Six Flags in Agawam, Mass., begins April 7.

But none of them need full payrolls until much later: Their schedules mostly start with weekends only, gradually ramping up to seven-day-a-week operations by mid-June. Operating hours, too, are limited at the start, and peak in July and August.