San Diego\u2019s three major attractions \u2014 Sea World, San Diego Zoo and the city\u2019s expansive beaches \u2014 are gearing their workforces for a summer full of challenges. The lines will grow for those seeking part-time jobs and, in some cases, available positions will be slim. SeaWorld may offer the most opportunities as it plans to expand its number of employees from 2,500 to 4,000 for the three peak summer months, starting on Memorial Day weekend. Lifeguards will take on 160 employees to patrol the sands from Ocean Beach to Black\u2019s Beach. Meanwhile, the zoo will lower the number of general hires from 600 to 300, while putting a greater emphasis on its college educational program.\u00a0 Interns will assist in key areas, said zoo officials. Peak days will be Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day \u2014 as well as additional demands in the late-evening periods. “Economically, it\u2019s still slow and we\u2019 re not under any illusion that visitations will be anything like it was a number of years ago, but we\u2019re pleased so far in what we\u2019ve seen (during the spring),” said SeaWorld media relations representative Dave Koontz.\u00a0 “The new Dolphin show, which debuts on Memorial Day, could make a big difference.\u00a0 “We hire for enthusiasm and attitude,” he said. “These people\u00a0will have to interface with our visitors in the park. Of course, we have a number of seasonal rehires who might assist with the animals.” SeaWorld job opportunities will be available in ride operations, merchandising, food service, entertainment, ticket selling and guest relations. The San Diego Lifeguard Services provides public safety to users of San Diego\u2019s coastline and ocean waterways from Point Loma to La Jolla. Beach areas include Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, Windansea, the Children\u2019s Pool, La Jolla Cove, La Jolla Shores, Black\u2019s Beach, and Mission Bay. Lt. Nick Lerma of the Mission Bay lifeguard base said all the towers are in place and added lifeguards will spring into action on Memorial Day. “El Ni\u00f1o has battered the coastline and rip tides have been prevalent,” Lerma said. “Between 40 and 50 new hires have compensated for vacancies to establish 200 seasonal lifeguards.” “Roughly 160 additional positions will be filled for the summer, including our junior lifeguard program,” he said.\u00a0“We\u2019re in spring mode and preparing for summer.”\u00a0 The temporaries will receive a three-day refresher course and be retested for physical skills. Lerma said El Ni\u00f1o has beat up the ocean so rip tides will be a challenge for swimmers\u00a0 \u00a0 “That represents 80 to 90 percent of our rescues,” he said. “Of course, the ancillary things like the board walks, lacerations, stingrays and jellyfish, surf boarders and some law enforcement issues are all part of the package.” San Diego Zoo community relations representative Tim Mulligan said there are three reasons for the cutback in hiring there: the economy, an effort to give the regular workers more hours and a college training program. “We haven\u2019t had as much turnover and we\u2019ll have some rehires,” Mulligan said. “We\u2019ll have people on board by Memorial Day and remaining\u00a0 through Labor Day.\u00a0 Those who do a good job in the summer might be rehired for the Christmas holiday. Usually, we get several hundred applications and I think there will be more than in the past.” \u00a0 The zoo\u2019s Institute for Conservation Research will offer 130 summer college student fellowships, affording 12-week internships. Mulligan remained optimistic. “If summer is anything like spring break, then we are looking for good numbers.” On an extremely good day, 20,000 people will roam the 107 acres, he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
San Diego\u2019s three major attractions \u2014 Sea World, San Diego Zoo and the city\u2019s expansive beaches \u2014 are gearing their workforces for a summer full of challenges. The lines will grow for those seeking part-time jobs and, in some cases, available positions will be slim. SeaWorld may offer the most opportunities as it plans to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Summer jobs a mixed bag for tourist attractions","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}