Pocono News Section

Local Employees Fill Seasonal Openings

Local Employees Fill Seasonal Openings - Monday, June 8, 2009 at 5:05PM EST

Elysburg, Northumberland County-
For local businesses, there is one benefit to the bad economy. There are plenty of people in the area looking for work.

In recent years, Knoebel’s Amusement Park has had some trouble filling its last few summer job openings. They’ve even brought in foreign exchange students from South Korea the past two years to pick up the slack.

Knoebel’s spokesman Joe Muscato said, “They were very useful for us. You know, until this current economy we were having difficulty finding enough people. In particular, people who wanted to work weekends, people who wanted to work evenings.”

Muscato says finding help hasn’t been an issue this year. Local people looking for work have practically been knocking down the doors.

Muscato noted, “We had a job fair in March. Normally we’d get 300-350 people through there. We had 1,300 through the doors for that.”

So Knoebel’s management decided to stick with workers from the area.

Knoebel’s officials say they’ve completed the bulk of their hiring for the summer. But they add they will be accepting a few people here and there as positions become available.

Muscato explained, “When we hit August, it’s very difficult because going back to college, starting football practice, field hockey practice, band camp, all those things make it difficult for us to schedule.”

And now as the weather takes a turn for the better, the park begins its full summer operating schedule. Workers here say they hope to see large crowds taking advantage of all the fun, food, and fantasy they can handle.

Muscato added, “We had so much rain through our school picnic season, but fortunately the weekends have been decent for us, and now we have a decent weekday. We’re happy.”

Knoebel’s officials even bought a house for those foreign exchange students to rent when they come here to work. We’re told that house will remain empty for the time being.