Even Amusement Parks Ride Out Tight Job Market

There’s no business like show business when it comes to attracting teenage workers in Southern California. But even the ever-popular entertainment venues admit to feeling the pinch in today’s super-tight job market.

With Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate at 5.3%--and even lower in certain booming areas within the region--employers who rely on teenage workers are redoubling efforts to recruit and hold onto the entry-level employees on whom they depend.

Entertainment and recreational venues--such as theme parks, family fun centers, movie theaters and ice rinks--have built-in advantages in recruiting teen talent because young people perceive them as fun places to work. After all, why flip burgers over a hot, greasy stove in a fast-food joint when you can earn equivalent pay while hanging out in a place you’d happily go on your own time?

But even these employers are out in force, touting their working environments and benefits--a reflection of the fact that they can’t leave anything to chance in the current robust economy. Some, such as Six Flags Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor in Valencia, recruit young workers from foreign lands for peak times, in part as a response to the current employment crunch.

“The job market is in the hands of the employees,� said Ken Schipper, general manager of Mountasia family fun center in Santa Clarita, which offers go-carts, bumper boats, a video arcade and other attractions.

This means teen workers often have lackadaisical attitudes, according to some. “There’s been a huge outcry from the business community about the work ethic [of entry-level workers],� said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. “The labor market is so tight, it’s giving them massive headaches.�

Most of the big entertainment venues in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys say they still hold the power when it comes to hiring teens, although they admit recruiting them is more difficult than in times past.

Officials at Universal Studios Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley’s largest employer with 4,000 to 5,000 workers from low season to high, say they have a leg up.

“There’s a high level of excitement, not just because we’re a theme park, but that we are the world’s largest movie studio,� said Dana Zeno, director of staffing services. But at the same time, Zeno added, “We’ve had some difficulties in hiring young people.�

Today, Universal Studios doesn’t wait for job seekers to come to it (although that still happens a lot). In light of the tighter job market, park officials regularly attend and hold job fairs, in some instances interviewing and hiring would-be employees on the spot.

Most of the time, there are more job seekers than jobs. Recently, for example, Universal participated in a job fair at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles at which 500 people applied. The company ended up hiring about 250 people from the downtown area, which is now easily linked to Universal Studios by the Metro Rail subway.

In May, before the peak summer season, about 3,000 would-be employees showed up at another event. Universal ended up hiring 1,100.

Although most of Universal Studios’ entry-level jobs pay only slightly higher than minimum wage, perks--such as multiple free admission vouchers to the park annually, on-lot movie screenings, and admission discounts with certain movie theater chains--keep fun-loving teens coming back.

And in contrast to most entry-level employers, Universal Studios also touts itself as an organization in which someone can start low and build a worthy career. That was the case with park Senior Vice President and General Manager Michael Taylor, who started 30 years ago cleaning cages backstage.

Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor officials also believe they hold the upper hand. Of its 2,500 to 3,500 employees (80% of whom are teenagers), it draws young workers from communities such as Palmdale and Lancaster, where job opportunities for teens are relatively scarce. “We still have the power of selection,� Magic Mountain publicist Amy Means said.

Like Universal Studios, Magic Mountain offers entertainment extras that teens crave, including free guest passes and discounts with local carwashes, movie theaters and restaurants.

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Even so, for the last two summers, Magic Mountain has recruited 250 international students from Poland and France, a reflection of the current tight job market. “We’re using different programs because the unemployment rate is so low,� Means said.

Likewise, Universal Studios works with international organizations to recruit European and Asian students--typically college age--for extra help at peak times. “We’ve had more this past summer than we’ve ever had,� Zeno said.

It’s in this competitive arena that other slightly less glamorous entertainment venues compete for teen workers for their minimum- or slightly above minimum-wage jobs. Step into nearly any movie house, ice-skating rink or family fun center throughout the San Fernando Valley and there are numerous “help wanted� signs.

Charles Skladanowski, senior manager at the AMC Promenade 16 multiplex in Woodland Hills, said he’s always on the lookout. He’s hooked up with local high schools and teen job programs to recruit young workers. He touts flexible scheduling, free movies and tuition assistance when pitching would-be ticket takers, ushers and cleanup personnel. “Kids have options,� he said.

The market for teen workers in the Valley is challenging, he said, but not as fierce as what he faced as a theater manager at Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. There, competitors would enter the premises and try to steal workers from under his nose. “It was cutthroat,� he said.

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At Mountasia in Santa Clarita, where 70% of the 35-person staff is under age 18, Schipper taps programs through local school districts that give vocational students academic credit for work experience. The center, which also has miniature golf, batting cages and a roller rink, naturally draws kids. “We get a lot of foot traffic,� said Schipper, who evaluates 10 to 20 potential hires each week. The big challenge is to find the teens with the right attitudes, he said.

Tom Barkwell, general manager of Iceoplex, a North Hills skating facility that employs 35, at least half of whom are teens, tries to hire his workers carefully. He encourages his better teen workers to spread the word to like-minded friends. And once hired, Iceoplex maintains a policy of promoting from within--a tactic he believes helps build loyalty and reduce churn, a constant problem that hurts the bottom line.

“Turnover costs organizations a lot of money,� said Fred Martels, a Missouri-based human resources executive who did a study on the teenage work force.

Iceoplex’s Barkwell and others say teen workers often have unrealistic notions about work. “It’s hard to find someone who’s willing to start at the bottom and work their way up. Kids nowadays want to come in and make $12 to $15 an hour. They don’t think they have to prove themselves anymore.�

Mountasia’s Schipper has had similar impressions. Some teens working for the first time at a fun center expect work to be all fun and games. When it isn’t, they become disillusioned. Some quit. Some get fired. “Some kids don’t know what a job is,� he said.

In the Antelope Valley, the last region in Los Angeles County to recover from the recession, young workers seem to feel more beholden to their employers, at least based on the comments of a few locals.

Keith Diamond, general manager and hockey director of Wayne Gretzky Roller Hockey Center in Lancaster, said he has few problems filling slots, and there’s little churn.

“We get more applicants than a McDonald’s or a carwash, because they’re working with people their own age,� Diamond said. “Sometimes, for the guys, it’s a way to meet girls.�

At the Cinemark 22, a multiplex with stadium seating in Lancaster, the majority of the predominantly teenage 80- to 120-person staff has been on the job for more than a year. Finding good hires is never a snap, said manager Scott Walker, but in the Antelope Valley, where jobs for teens aren’t plentiful and there’s greater economic need, young people generally take these entry-level jobs seriously, he said.

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This may put the region in contrast to more affluent areas “down below,� as Antelope Valley locals refer to the San Fernando Valley.

Michael Wood, vice president of Teenage Research Unlimited in Northbrook, Ill., a market research company that specializes in the teen market, said that in general, teens today are picky about where they work and what they will tolerate.

In past generations, many teens sought jobs because they needed the money.

Today, with the strong economy, that’s no longer the case for many. And in addition, affluent baby boomer parents sometimes prefer that their children spend free time on academics or extracurricular activities, rather than low-wage work.

“Boomer parents who are doing well financially want to make up for what they missed out on. They think, ‘my kid is not going to do without,’ � Wood said.