I find this time of year a little depressing. Some of this malaise is
because now is back-to-school season, and I never liked school (until I
got to college). But I think a large share of my seasonal discontent
stems from growing up in a beach town that effectively died each year at
the end of summer. Although I didn’t think about it while I was growing
up, I’m sure now that a lot of jobs also died each year when the
beaches closed down. But seasonal employment is not restricted to beach
towns and the summer jobs found there. You may be surprised at how many
different seasons our economy experiences and the jobs that wax and wane
with these seasons.
In the days when the economy was primarily
agricultural, almost everybody was a seasonal worker. But even though
nowadays farming employs a much smaller workforce, agriculture
indirectly creates other seasonal job opportunities. In the
apple-orchard hills of central Pennsylvania where my wife grew up, the
canning plants still take on extra workers each autumn. Compared to most
sectors of the manufacturing industry, food processing is much less
threatened by foreign competition, so its seasonal rhythms will continue
to affect employment patterns in agricultural regions for the
foreseeable future.
In the retail industry, the main seasonal
phenomenon is Christmas, of course. The December uptick in retail
traffic creates opportunities for more than just those who directly
handle merchandise, such as sales clerks and warehouse workers. It also
creates jobs for security guards and loss-prevention officers, plus the
workers at the food courts in shopping malls. Internet shopping has
reduced some of the hurly-burly at retail stores, but it has created
many seasonal jobs for package deliverers and order fillers.
Winter also gives a lift to the economy in tropical beach towns, on
cruise ships, and near ski slopes. In northern states, snow removal
provides many seasonal work hours. Furnaces are running more hours of
the day and are inevitably breaking down and needing service by
mechanics. Hospital emergency rooms typically are busiest at this time
of year, treating people for flu, asthma attacks, and broken bones
caused by slips and falls.
Accountants, financial clerks, and
tax preparers get particularly busy in the winter and early spring, as
tax documents need to be prepared and filed at this time of year. As
spring progresses, nursery and greenhouse workers work extra hours to
raise young plants for summer gardens.
Summer creates jobs not
only in beach towns like my birthplace, but also in and around national
parks and at lake resorts. Amusement parks and traveling carnivals take
on workers. (It’s interesting that in Spain and some other warm-weather
countries, the time and place for carnival rides is the Christmas season
in shopping districts; one parent puts the children on rides while the
other parent is shopping for presents.)
Some workers are able
to shift from one job to another as the seasons change. For example, in
my hometown a music teacher and a math teacher used their summers away
from the classroom to run a miniature golf course on the Boardwalk. One
of the English teachers worked at a soft ice cream stand near the beach.
In some occupations, the workers are employed year-round but are
engaged in very different tasks according to the season. I once had a
neighbor whose business consisted of painting stripes on parking lots.
In the summer he was busy laying down white and yellow stripes, but in
the winter he was lining up next summer’s clients and submitting
designs. Many other businesses in the construction industry follow a
similar rhythm.
Many of the job I have mentioned here provide
opportunities for young people, especially during the summer vacation
from school. On the other hand, as baby boomers get closer to
retirement, seasonal jobs may provide opportunities for them to shift
from year-round work to a schedule that is less continuously demanding.
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