Staffing at the Park & Recreation Board impacts a lot of what we do in the summertime at the Minneapolis parks. Access to bathrooms in the parks, having lifeguards on duty, and the availability of coaches for youth and adult sports teams are all impacted by whether the Park & Rec Board can find people to fill those positions.

A reader reached out and asked how staffing levels were this summer, compared to last year. Here is what the Park & Rec Board shared with us:

“The Seasonal Park Maintenance worker vacancies are at the same level as last year, 50% of where we want to be. However, we are hopeful to see these numbers increase now that we have reached an agreement with the Union for 2022-2023 and have increased wages.  We are now able to advertise those job openings at the higher rates.

The Seasonal Equipment Operator vacancies are at the same level as last year, 50% of where we want to be.  We do not anticipate seeing much change given how competitive these jobs are in the marketplace. Commercial Driver’s License drivers are in demand everywhere.

Youth Employment is looking good and essentially all programs are full.

Golf, Environmental Management, Youth and Recreation programs staffing are all about the same as last year. Some of these jobs can be found in the general jobs listings. Note: Southwest Voices has been spreading the word about youth programming staffing which suggests a strong need to fill these positions.

Lifeguards are about the same as last year at this time, which means we can offer two guarded beaches at Wirth Lake Beach, Lake Nokomis main beach, our two water parks,  the Phillips Aquatic Center and the Webber Natural Swimming Pool. We would love to get our lifeguard numbers up to where they were before the pandemic when we offered more guarded beaches in our system, but the lifeguard shortage is nationwide.”

If staffing shortages are impacting your enjoyment of the Parks system this summer, please spread the word about the job vacancies in the Parks systems, encourage people to apply for jobs or consider applying yourself.