JACKSON, Wyo. — On June 22, 2020, President Donald Trump, signed a proclamation, “suspending entry of aliens who present a risk to the U.S. labor market following the coronavirus outbreak.” The proclamation bars entry to non-immigration visas, including the J-1 visa, a popular visa for young people seeking seasonal employment in Jackson Hole.
Jackson Hole Mountian Resort (JHMR) and Snow King Mountain Resort (SKMR) hire J-1 visa holders for seasonal employment positions. This season, with no J-1 workers, the employment gap has been filled with a different demographic.
“What we’ve noticed from our applicant pool is that we’ve been getting a lot more applications from college students, looking to take a gap year,” said Emilee Ballard, Director of Human Resources at SKMR.
Mackenzie Cole, Benefits & Compliance Manager at JHMR echoed this trend, “we are seeing that we are having a higher amount of college-age students who are taking gap years or college students who are studying remotely and living in Jackson, applying for jobs and take advantage of the employee ski pass.”
Both resorts still have job openings posted on their websites. JHMR lists 18 current openings, and SKMR has 10 different departments still hiring.
Cole shared early-season employment levels at JHMR.“From an employment point of view we are actually doing okay in their absence because we are able to capture this other audience that we haven’t had in previous years,” she said.
Ballard discussed the allure of Jackson to college students, “because of COVID and a lot of online learning, a lot of applicants are looking for in-person learning, they want face-to-face interactions with their teachers and peers, so they’ve made the decision to take a gap year,” she said, “we are getting a lot of high-quality candidates applying to Snow King, which is great, but then it ultimately comes down to the housing situation.”
Ballard explained the connection between housing and employment levels, “we simply still do not have enough employees. I don’t see us ever getting to a point where we are completely hired for the winter,” said Ballard, citing the ever-present housing issue.”The reality of what it takes to live and work here has turned a lot of people away, they start looking into the housing situation and before we know it they’re not coming out because they can’t find a place,” she said.
Even with a flood of college student employees, the pandemic has created an added complication for ski resorts to remain staffed.
Both JHMR and SKMR are following the health department’s orders and have their own policies in place in order to keep employees safe “We ordered vault tests to have on hand, so employees can be tested immediately.” said Ballard. JHMR has a covid testing kiosk located in the Cody lot where employees can make appointments to get tested if needed.
Even with protocols in place, it’s hard to predict how the winter will play out at SKMR. “There’s definitely a possibility that we would have to quarantine a lot of people, and it’s going to definitely make us short-staffed, that being said, being a smaller resort, all of our managers are cross-trained,” said Ballard, adding, “We are definitely committed to keeping the lifts running no matter what we have to do.”
