For southern New England amusement parks, February is when the race for summer help heats up

Even though temperatures in southern New England soon will be dipping into the 20s, the race is on at Lake Compounce, Quassy and Six Flags to sign up thousands of water park attendants, ride operators and ticket clerks for the approaching season.

All three amusement parks are making a push to recruit workers early this year, emphasizing that February and March applicants can get a wider choice of job assignments than those who wait until opening day.

To fill a combined total of 4,300 jobs, Six Flags, Lake Compounce and Quassy are offering perks ranging from staff parties and free tickets to discounted meals or even tuition assistance. But like many amusement parks around the country, they’re expecting the labor market will ease a bit this year and won’t be offering the COVID-era signing bonuses and retention incentives.

Six Flags is hosting a hiring fair this weekend as it seeks to fill 3,000 jobs, while Lake Compounce is conducting an online recruitment drive to get 1,000 workers and Quassy is seeking 300.

All three parks started reaching out to their workers from last year with new job offers, and Six Flags is offering an expedited system for 2022 employees who want to come back. Their push now is to attract college students and older high school students so they’re ready to gradually ramp up staffing from opening day through the start of the core summer season.

“So far this year our return rate has been pretty strong. We already have 200 or 300 returning team members as of early February and I’m sure that number will grow,” said Lynsey Winters, Lake Compounce’s marketing director.

Lake Compounce, which straddles the Bristol and Southington line, and Middlebury-based Quassy need enough workers in place for opening day on April 29. Six Flags in Agawam, Mass., begins April 7.

But none of them need full payrolls until much later: Their schedules mostly start with weekends only, gradually ramping up to seven-day-a-week operations by mid-June. Operating hours, too, are limited at the start, and peak in July and August.

And the New England weather means amusement parks get extra time to recruit for one of the hardest jobs to fill: lifeguard. Lake Compounce’s Crocodile Cove, Quassy’s Splash Away Bay and Six Flags’ Hurricane Harbor water parks don’t open until Memorial Day.

Entry-level pay generally ranges from $15 to $16 an hour, but lifeguard pay starts higher: $18 at Lake Compounce and $17 at Six Flags. In recent years, the parks — along with their counterparts around the country — have been struggling to get certified candidates, partly because of competition from community pools and state beaches and partly because fewer people are applying for the high-responsibility job.

As competition ramped up, Lake Compounce last year began offering paid training for lifeguards, and also covered the cost of certification exams.

But so far, the region’s amusement parks aren’t offering signing bonuses. When business last spring started bouncing back from the pandemic restrictions, some amusement parks in other parts of the country — including Walt Disney World in Orlando — began paying $500 or $1,000 incentives either for joining their staffs or for staying on past the start of college season. Massachusetts and Rhode Island, along with cities from Denver to Minneapolis, started paying lifeguard signup incentives, too.

That’s less common this year at either public beaches or private water parks, although there are exceptions. Philadelphia is offering a $1,000 bonus for summer lifeguards, and Phoenix will pay up to $3,000.

Partly to lock up staffing ahead of the competition, the Connecticut-region parks are encouraging prospective staffers to apply now. Six Flags has an in-person jobs fair today and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but is also heavily relying on its new all-online Rapid Hiring initiative.

“It’s a streamlined process so people from near and far don’t even have to come in anymore. They can start onboarding and training right away, they can start making money earlier,” said Jennifer McGrath, Six Flags New England’s public relations manager. “It takes 3,000 positions to make our engine work. Certainly with applying, the earlier the better for people to secure the position they’re most interested in.”

Winters offered similar advice to Lake Compounce applicants.

“We still have positions across every department: rides, food and beverage, admissions, grounds, aquatics,” she said. “We’re hiring everywhere. So if you want a specific role, now is the time to apply.”