Ottawa County looks for J-1 students to fill workforce gaps

PORT CLINTON — Like most industries, tourism needs all the workers it can find in a time of dramatic labor shortages.

For decades, Ottawa County hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions have relied on a summer workforce boost from foreign college students to supplement their locally grown workforce.

After COVID-19 travel and visa restrictions significantly shrank those international worker numbers the past two summers, some area employers are seeing a return in 2022 to at or close to pre-pandemic seasonal staffing levels.

J-1 Visa Exchange started in 1961 and is a cultural exchange program with a work component.

Mike Snider, Port Clinton's mayor, is general manager of Lake Erie Vacation Rentals, which operates Our Guest Inn & Suites and has employed J-1 workers for more than 20 years working with the nonprofit company InterExchange through the BridgeUSA program.

"We couldn't operate without these kids," Snider said.

Snider said the number of summer jobs available in Ottawa County has increased exponentially in the past 30 years, with the county's homegrown labor pool not able to keep up with demand.

Students come to U.S. looking for work, travel opportunities

The number of J-1 summer work travel participants plummeted in 2020 and 2021, both nationally and in Ohio.

Data from the U.S. Department of State showed the number of J-1 workers in Ohio fell from 3,332 in 2019 to 225 in 2020.

Those Ohio J-1 numbers rebounded somewhat in 2021 to 1,114, which was still a 67% drop from pre-pandemic levels.

That's forced some Ottawa County businesses to reduce their hours or close certain days the past two summers in a concession to a stark labor shortage.

Snider said Our Guest's goal was to employ eight J-1 students this summer.

There were four students working at the Port Clinton hotel by the last week of May, two from Kazakhstan and two from Thailand, with Snider prepared to welcome additional students from Taiwan and Turkey in June and July.

Karina, 20, a student in Kazakhstan's industrial business university, is one of the four J-1 students already working at Snider's business.

She said she heard about the J-1 program from a university classmate.

The Kazakhstan student, who lives and works with Maya (also from Kazakhstan), and June and Proud (both from Bangkok, Thailand), said she was adapting quickly to Port Clinton and the United States in general.

"The food is different. The culture is different. But I like it," Karina said.

All four women will be working in housekeeping at Our Guest, with plans to travel throughout the United States after their work obligations end.

Under the conditions of their J-1 visas, the students are allowed to stay in the United States for four months to work and then travel as part of a cultural exchange.

The students can't take jobs that were slated for American workers.

The J-1 visas cover a variety of foreign visitors, not just hospitality workers, but the visas are popular with restaurants and hotels looking to add employees when they can't find enough American workers.

PIB businesses finding J-1 students

Put-in-Bay officials said most of their businesses are doing better this year finding seasonal staff, whether it be J-1 exchange students, American college students or local residents.

"That's not to say we couldn't use more help," said Wendy Chambers, executive director of the Put-in-Bay Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau.

Jessica Dress, the village's mayor, said a lot of the international students started arriving around Memorial Day weekend for work at Put-in-Bay's bars and restaurants.

For one of the destination's largest employers, their number of J-1 employees has tripled compared to 2021.

Megan Beckwith, manager at Hooligans Irish Pub, said the Boardwalk family of restaurants — Hooligans, Boardwalk Upper Deck, Boardwalk Main Deck, The Keys, The Dairy Isle, and Park Place Boat Club — consists of about 220 staff members, with Hooligans alone having a staff of 28.

She said finding J-1 students was not as hard this year compared to 2021.

For the Boardwalk restaurants, there are 60 J-1 employees this season compared to about 20 last year, Beckwith said.

A 2021 Alliance for International Exchange BridgeUSA program survey of 665 participating seasonal businesses and summer camps across the U.S. showed 60% lost revenue, with 20% of their seasonal positions unfilled.

Three out of five of those businesses shortened their hours or closed business locations, with 90% not meeting peak staffing needs without J-1 visa exchange visitors and 87% reporting staff burnout.

In Ohio, five businesses in the 2021 survey reported a total loss of $1,010,000, or $202,000 per business, for the season.

Snider said it has still been difficult for some businesses to find J-1 employees this year, with only so many visas issued every year and increased competition for those students in 2022.

He said there was also a backlog in some countries for visa interviews.

Becky Davis, InterExchange's USA regional account manager, said there are some changes that have impacted J-1 students and employers interested in bringing them on for the season.

Pandemic restrictions have been eased

Travel bans have been lifted on some countries and there's been a general easing of pandemic-related restrictions, both in the U.S. and overseas.

Davis said there is more competition among American employers for those J-1 students, who can choose from jobs all over the country.

Employers need to realize that the J-1 Visa Exchange is a cultural exchange program, not a labor program, Davis said, and make sure their companies are a good fit for international students wanting to make the trip to the United States.

That includes providing housing and helping ease the students' transition to a new country.

Although she did not have official numbers for 2022, Davis said there were a lot more J-1 exchange visitors coming to the U.S. this summer.

"We are getting closer to our 2019 numbers, so we're recovering nicely," Davis said.

Snider said that, throughout the summer, he and his family plan to take the Our Guest students on trips to Put-in-Bay, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and Columbus to tour the Ohio State University campus.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Ottawa County looks for workforce boost from J-1 exchange students