More than 12,000 seasonal jobs will be advertised at the 2018 Ocean City Job Fair and the vast majority of them will not be filled.
This year's Ocean City Jobs Fair will be held at the Convention Center on March 31, 2018. Every year, Ocean City holds a job fair advertising seasonal jobs and every year, businesses are forced hire foreign workers on J-1 visas instead to fill these positions because there aren't enough local applicants. This visa program allows foreign teenagers and college students to work seasonal jobs in the United States as a form of "cultural enrichment." With the future of this program uncertain, employers are hoping to get even more local job applicants this year. On the campaign trail, then-Candidate Trump criticized the J-1 visa program as a way for companies to pay foreign laborers less than American workers. The J-1 visa program allows foreign students to gain "cultural experience" by working seasonal jobs in the United States. Foreign workers typically pay placement companies thousands of dollars to get placed in summer jobs in east coast beach towns and, because the purpose of their job is cultural enrichment, can sometimes get paid below what an American worker would get in the same position. So far, the Trump administration has not taken action on the J-1 program. Though, the President did sign a "Buy American, Hire American" executive order last year instructing his administration to review all visa programs that potentially take jobs away from American applicants. One of the White House's proposals was to replace J-1 programs with inner-city job fairs, though that plan has not been implemented.
Many area businesses say that there just aren't enough local kids looking for jobs in Ocean City, so they have no choice but to turn to foreign workers. The data tends to support that argument. Even though there were 12,000 jobs advertised at last year's Ocean City Job Fair, area businesses were only able to fill approximately 400 of them with local fair applicants.
The good news is that means that qualified applicants are statistically guaranteed to get some sort of summer job offer as long as they show up to the 2018 Ocean City Job Fair!
So, if you're looking for a summer job -- or have a kid that you want out of the house and earning money on his or her own this summer -- do not miss the 2018 Ocean City Job Fair!
This year's fair will be held on March 31, 2018 at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center (4001 Coastal Hwy, Ocean City, MD 21842). The fair will run from 9 am to 1 pm.
Organizers are expecting another 12,000 jobs to be advertised at this year's event. While there will be job openings for practically every type of businesses, attendees should expect to see a lot of open positions for restaurants, motels, hotels, specialty stores, boardwalk shops, lifeguards, water sports companies, marinas, and bars.
The job fair is free to enter and applicants are encouraged to bring along plenty of resumes. Be sure to dress for success. Even if you're applying for a lifeguard job, wear business attire. While businesses may have their own application processes, the organizers of the Ocean City Job Fair recommend that applicants also bring along a few completed generic job applications (you can download it here) as well. Some businesses at the fair will use the generic application form, so bringing a few completed copies can really speed up the process.
Additional questions can be directed over email to Events Director Lisa Layfield ([email protected]).
