Kirkpatrick said the company is ready to get rolling, even with a shortened season. An active 2021 season, which looked uncertain until recently, will help set up tour companies like Allen for a successful 2022 season, Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Given the ship schedule, there’s still a lighter load as far as cruise ship deployment,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s kind of all hands on deck for hiring.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Labor statisticians are unsure how the hiring process will manifest this year or what numbers of jobs will be created.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“It’s a little tricky to know what cruise ship season will do to employment,” said Dan Robinson, research chief at Alaska’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development. “All the news seems to be toward more opening up with surprisingly quick changes.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Robinson predicts a “hybrid summer” with several developments toward renewed job growth in the second half of the season. He said that the labor situation will depend mainly on cruise ships and whether businesses that aren’t locally owned open.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
In-state\/out-of-state<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Many companies prefer to hire locally, but the number of workers needed to pull the oars of the industry also requires a lot of out-of-state hires. TEMSCO is one of the companies that will be able to staff up to operating strength with local hires, said Craig Jennison, vice president of tours and marketing for TEMSCO Helicopters.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“If you asked me a month ago if we were gonna have any season at all, I’d’ve said no. Even an eight-week season has generated a lot of excitement here,” Jennison said. “We rely on local hires. That’s for our dock reps, receptions, flight following, glacier guides. That’s a pretty local force we use.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
For Allen, which requires hundreds of staff to staff boats and shoreside positions, the issue of housing — a perennial concern across the Southeast, rears its head.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We’ve known about this, everyone knows about this: there’s housing issues. That always plays a factor in the recruiting process,” Kirkpatrick said. “We’re going to try and hire local; that’s always our preference as an Alaska Native-owned company.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
For places like Juneau, locally staffing positions may be easier than for smaller communities, Robinson said. Robinson said during a typical year, about 30% of the people staffing tourism-related businesses come from out of state to work during the summer season.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“In Juneau and Ketchikan, there may be enough local labor,” Robinson said, predicting that businesses with local ties will have an easier time finding staff.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
TEMSCO’s maintenance staff are more permanent, Jennison said, experienced aircraft mechanics not generally being people that can be hired off the street. But for their dozens of local staff slots, they’re reaching out to previous seasonal employees to fill the roster. The fast-moving return of the cruise season also has them getting set for the brave new world of tourism in a post-pandemic era, and how to best serve guests in safety.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Right now, we’re trying to figure out what kind of volume we’re going to have this summer. Every day we answer one question and generate six more questions,” Jennison said. “We’re doing an unofficial head count around town. I think we’ll be able to cover our bases fairly easily.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
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