Employers turn to Puerto Rico for seasonal staff

BOSTON – Tourism businesses on Cape Cod are looking to Puerto Rico to fill summer jobs.

The Boston Globe reports that employers are turning to Puerto Rico because of a shortage of workers locally and a cap on foreign-worker visas.

As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans don’t need visas to work on the mainland, and the island has seen widespread unemployment since Hurricane Maria struck.

Josh Gamsey, general manager at the Pleasant Bay Village Resort in Chatham, says he spent $2,000 to recruit housekeepers from Puerto Rico because “there’s nobody here that will do those jobs.”

Peter Hall, owner of two Wellfleet restaurants, says he used to see a stack of applications for work by June. He went to a job fair in Puerto Rico in search of workers.

He says he’ll hire anyone with a pulse.

___

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.bostonglobe.com