Have you noticed the growing number of “Help Wanted” signs in your town? The service sector is hurting for summer labor and the need is extending to campgrounds too. The campground worker shortages are so bad in Maine that the governor is proposing a radical idea. He wants to commute sentences of low-risk prisoners in order to fill temporary tourism jobs in places like Bar Harbor.
Campground Worker Shortages Hit Tourism Industry
Campground worker shortages are being felt coast-to-coast.
Seasonal summer jobs and workamper roles are usually filled by full-time RVers, high school kids, and foreign workers. These seasonal positions range from camp hosts to housekeeping staff to amusement park employees. Most jobs are filled by early spring. However this year the recruitment scene is totally different. Newspaper headlines from coast-to-coast proclaim that the tourism industry is having a hard time recruiting help. Tourism employers across North America echo this sentiment.
In the U.S., a stricter limitation on foreign workers is the main problem. “Because of new limits on the seasonal worker visa program, restaurants, hotels and other tourist-centered operations are scrambling to find seasonal employees. Until Congress opens the door to more H-2B foreign workers, those businesses are finding ways to attract locals onto the payroll,” writes the Bangor Daily News.
But over the border in Canada, the Vancouver Business journal cites a high cost-of-living as the culprit. “We’re finding that there isn’t the supply of staff that there has been in previous years,” said Eddie Wood to the journal. Wood is owner of Sea to Sky Park Services. “Partly the issue seems to be cost of living in these regions.”
Back in Maine, the problem is so bad that news channel WLBZ says “Governor LePage proposed on a radio show Tuesday to commute the sentences of some of Maine’s low-risk inmates and to put them into the tourism workforce.” Some employers are for the idea, some are totally against it.
And in many areas like the Black Hills of South Dakota, campground owners are actually shutting down campsites. They just can’t find enough workers to maintain their properties.
It’s never been easier to get a seasonal job for RVers
Exchanging a few hours of your time each week is a great way to save money on rent. If you’re a full-time RVer and want to dodge the chaos of the summer vacation RV park crowds, “workamping” is the way to do it. Summer is already here but many employers are actively hiring for everything from camp hosts to grounds keepers and more. If you have a favorite campground, why not approach the owner to find out if they need temporary assistance? You could get free or low-cost rent out of the deal and spend summer in a beautiful place you enjoy.
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
Dumbest dang thing I’ve heard of. We have a common issue here that centers on security. Keep the prisoners in the hoosecow and do your job by budgeting for the workers needed. Don’t reward bad behavior by commuting sentences then providing an opportunity we the end users will ultimately bear the burden of. Don’t open my security up to any criminal. Dumb, Think about the bigger picture!
How about hiring homeless military veterans or homeless sober families! What a concept right! They are ignored and all stereotyped as lazy drug addicts or alcoholics! So, let’s hire jail birds and trust them around our RVs! Next RV parks will want us to sign a statement they are not responsible for any felons criminal acts in the RV palrkd! Dan Hatton, Colonel, US Army (ret)
Pay a decent wage and you probably won’t have trouble finding help. The rates campgrounds are charging today they can certainly afford to pay a better wage. I don’t want criminals who should be in jail hanging around my motorhome.
I’m in favor of “Trusties” doing work in many of the state and county owned properties. They could cut the grass and do small repairs saving the state and counties thousands. Yes it would make the unions mad but since they are not involved in the work now, they have nothing to loose. There are many other “work release” programs, why not for the state and counties?
Slave labor is a bad idea. Lincoln freed them.
PAY A LIVING WAGE!!!!
We now have a society that doesn’t want to get its hands dirty. If you can push a key on a computer that is fine, but clean a toilet or do manual labor is beneath folks of today. I have a small contracting business and unless I pay helpers $20/hr. they will go to someone else. Camp grounds are charging top dollar but are probably paying minimum wage and that equals “no help.”
These are “Trusties”, yes convicted felons but human beings that made a mistake. Give them a break! Don’t want them cutting the grass or maintaining campsites then go camp somewhere else.
Very nice said…doesnt everyone deserve a second chance?
NO WAY!!! As others have indicated, and particularly as a solo female RVr, I DON’T WANT ANYONE SERVING TIME AROUND MY CAMPGROUND, LET ALONE MY RV!
NO WAY!!! As others have indicated, and particularly as a solo female RVr, I DON’T WANT ANYONE SERVING TIME AROUND MY CAMPGROUND, LET ALONE MY RV!
Years ago we were in a beautiful campground in Virginia. They had a few inmates working there with a guard. They were working hard and we did not feel threatened at all. They were all due to be released soon. It’s a win-win situation. Our campgrounds get work done and the inmates get to be in the beautiful outdoors.
Speaking from experience, if campground/RV park owners paid a reasonable wage and treat workcampers as employees and not as slaves, the problem of getting help would not be as big a problem as this article states.
How many other RVers have had the same negative experiences as workcamoers and will not do it anymore.
I resemble that remark.
Yes, many people including me would rather eat beans and rice than put up with insensitive and disrespectful treatment including pay that’s way out of scale for work provided. Taking advantage of those who were desperate for work has backfired and will take some doing to put right
Agree whole heartedly. Never in my life have I been treated as a second class citizen like I have been as a Workamper. What gives park owners the right to yell, holler, scream at workers and then laugh and clown around with customers. After 30 years in the Army, trust me, I will drop you like a bad habit. Now scream and holler about that.
“Trustees” are not the answer.
Putting convicts in with RV’ers is not a good idea. I would not feel safe leaving my RV in a campground of convicts. I stay in campgrounds for safety not to be with criminals. They would require a guard to be with them at all times in my opinion. If it is in National Forest or National Parks along side other regular employees then maybe that would be safe. There are a few that would be ok but many would not be. Let them work on roads and fire lines.
Really? Are you a Christian? Doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance? How do you know the guy staying next to you, hasn’t been in jail or prison in their life? So, just because you know they are convicts on work release means they are trouble?
1. In our State Park crews composed of trustees are used to keep the weeds under control to lessen the chance of a forest fire.
2. For other jobs I agree with increasing the wage to make the work attractive.
We all make mistakes. If you are not given a second chance to prove yourself you will fall back into the same hole. We have all made mistakes in our life. I have made a few. lucky I never got caught. But the I grew up and now I will give anyone a second chance.I . .