The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is looking to add over 1,300 seasonal workers as seasonal park workers at state parks and recreation areas before this summer.
Ron Olson, Chief of Parks and Recreation for the Michigan DNR, said the DNR started recruiting earlier than normal.
“We started out recruitment campaigns a lot earlier and so far, we’ve gotten quite a bit of interest in the jobs," Olson said. "But it’s too early to tell, in terms of actual applications.”
In addition to starting recruiting efforts earlier, the DNR has moved the application process online to help streamline it.
“We’ve expanded the connections in a much more robust way," Olson said. "We’ll put out signs in front of the parks too, so local people know we’re looking for people.”
Olson says to help combat the labor shortage, the pay has increased for first-year seasonal park workers to 15 dollars an hour.
"That's helps a lot because we really struggled, struggled last year, but the year before we had an awful time hiring people," Olson said. "We started seeing a trend in 2019, and even 2018, in some parks, but it got really acute in 2020, like everybody else with restaurants and tourism businesses. And in 2021, we had a real tough time."
Olson said while they hire college students, that isn't the DNR's entire workforce.
"Not all of these folks that work in those categories are college students," Olson said. "We do have retired individuals that are looking for working part of the year."
The DNR is also looking to add multiple seasonal park rangers.
"A seasonal park ranger job requires a little more background," Olson said. "So there's some more additional base requirements for those jobs. But those are those are benefited jobs that are usually run around 1,400 hours a year."
Olson said applications can be found michigan.gov/dnr.
