A few miles away, Bill Callahan, owner of the concessions on the Cape May- Lewes ferry between New Jersey and Delaware, has found a long way around the problem. Desperate for employees, he traveled to Ireland this winter and hired 40 exchange students planning to come here this summer. Then he hired nine teenagers from England and one from France.
To owners of thousands of summer businesses, the idea of hiring Europeans to do jobs traditionally held by American teenagers no longer seems outlandish.
Particularly this year.
The declining teenage population, high resort-area rents, high-paying jobs in a competitive market - all these factors have contributed to the drain of summer-vacation employees at the shore. In resort towns up and down the East Coast, owners of restaurants, amusement piers and gift shops are hurting for employees.
Consider:
* The University of Maryland, responding to the distress of merchants in Ocean City, Md., has agreed to excuse students working in the shore town from the first few days of classes in September so that they can stay on the job through Labor Day. That will give the town some sorely needed workers for the entire season.
"If you drive up our 10 miles of beach, you will see 'Help Wanted' signs everywhere," said Anne FauntLeRoy, executive director of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce. "I went to one of the biggest restaurants in town the other day and the owner was busing tables."
* In Cape Cod, where state officials estimate that between 3,000 and 5,000 summer jobs are vacant, businesses have advertised as far as Texas for summer help. Workers at fast-food restaurants are earning as much as $6 to $8 an hour and some employers are providing bus service between Cape Cod and New Bedford, where there are pockets of high unemployment.
