Applicant pool swells for Eastern Iowa summer jobs

Competition for summer jobs, often the first career hurdle for college and high-school students, appears to be a little tougher in the sluggish post-recession economy.

Large summer employers say they're getting more applications than usual, and those applications include workers with more experience.

The Cedar Rapids Parks & Recreation Department is filling 436 seasonal positions, slightly more than last year.

“Overall, we received more applications than usual, and in aquatics, we received two times as many as normal,” said Gail Loskill, marketing manager for the department.

The higher amount of job experience listed on the applications suggests “we're probably seeing applications from non-traditional seasonal workers or those affected by the economy or laid off,” Loskill said.

As teenagers get out of school for the summer, the unemployment rate in the Corridor is at its highest level in about a quarter-century. The March rate in Johnson County was 4.8 percent, 7.1 percent in Linn County.

That still gives local teenagers better odds than most, as the national unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent.

Many private employers said they're getting more applicants than usual for seasonal openings but aren't seeing a significant shift to older applicants.

“(Older workers are) looking for jobs with benefits, and they have built up work experience that they can demand higher paying jobs,” said Kinch Donithan, owner of the Hiawatha Dairy Queen.

Even for companies that can't use many student workers, it's an employer's market.

“Right now, we've got the best group of employees in our company's history,” said Greg Scharf, owner of Greg's Lawn and Landscaping in Cedar Rapids.

Scharf's summer hiring season starts well before high school and college get out, so he doesn't hire many college students. He only uses workers 18 or older, because of requirements related to the mowing and cutting equipment his crews use.

This year brought an unusual number of applicants who were formerly employed in the construction field, Scharf said. They are welcome applicants, he said, because they bring technical skills in addition to the strength, endurance and interest in outdoor work that he usually seeks.

Younger workers are, by contrast, well-suited for many of the positions at the Hiawatha Dairy Queen, which plans to increase staffing by about five, to 40 total, this summer. Donithan said hiring younger workers helps reduce employee turnover.

“If somebody's used to earning $10 per hour, chances are, if you hire them, they'll be job-hunting,” he said.

Restaurants like Dairy Queen and Culver's Frozen Custard have to add staff in the summer when their customer traffic swells.

“We have not changed our hiring pattern based on the economy,” said Jacob Kendall, who helps manage his family's chain of four Culver's restaurants. “We have found better applicants at both ends - the older and younger workers.”

Kendall said young workers are important, because they are willing to work “short shifts” of three or four hours, plus late shifts that more mature workers often don't like.

Signs that the economy have tightened the job market for younger workers include two graduating college seniors who are returning to work at Culver's for the summer.

“In past years, students like this just haven't worked for us,” Kendall said. “They just went and got a teaching job. They may end up working this summer or longer until they find a job.”

Students as young as 14 can work in many positions if they have a work permit from Iowa Workforce Development, said Brenda Dodge, manager of the agency's Iowa City office.