Hot summer hiring expected for second year straight

Job hunters, rejoice; hiring this summer is expected to be humming for the second year in a row, with bosses considering turning some summer hires into permanent workers—and offering better pay, too.

All this cheery news comes from a new CareerBuilder survey that finds 41 percent of employers—the same as last year—planning on hiring summer workers. One out of four plans to offer those workers an average of $15 per hour—more than twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

Related: Summer Fridays are all the rage this year

And some of those summer workers could be even luckier, with 88 percent of employers planning to keep some of them on as permanent workers; that’s actually more than did so last year, when 79 percent planned on the move.

Bosses are looking to a range of sources for those summer hires, with 73 percent planning to recruit among college students; 39 percent will be looking among high school students and 26 percent say retirees. In addition, 41 percent intend to fill their summer ranks with veterans.

Prospective workers’ best chances lie in the Northeast, where 47 percent of employers are looking for summer help; 41 percent of Western employers are doing so, with the South and Midwest trailing (but not by much) at 39 and 37 percent, respectively.

And it’s not just making sure kids are tall enough to ride the Cyclone or pulling in drowning bathers from the surf—although of course there are those, as well as some even more unusual, such as teaching ice skating, running a worm farm, candling eggs, detasseling corn, killing mosquitos, driving an ambulance or even being part of an all-female valet parking crew (although how many of those might remain in this age of #MeToo has yet to be determined).

There are plenty of conventional jobs to be filled. Employers say they’re looking for, among others, customer service (25 percent); IT (25 percent); office support (25 percent); engineering (18 percent); manufacturing (16 percent); sales (15 percent); construction/painting (10 percent); research (10 percent); and banking (9 percent).

The report suggests that would-be workers take summer jobs seriously, particularly in light of the potential for full-time follow-on work. In fact, it says, candidates should apply now and be sure to dress the part for any interviews; they should be flexible about shifts and hours; refrain from asking about any available discounts; they should ask about the potential for permanent work; and they should show possible bosses that they’re excited about the opportunities on offer.