(April 30, 2021) In an effort to quell resortwide staffing struggles, the same international workers who were once reserved for seafood packing houses and farm labor are taking on new roles at some Ocean City businesses this year.
Each year, a set number of H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker visas are granted to individuals from foreign countries for six months to come to the United States and work for money to send home to their families. Businesses apply for certification to hire them and receive a number based on a lottery system. The workers are adults, not students like those who come from the J-1 student work and travel program, and typically perform manual labor â until this year.
(April 2, 2021) On Monday, for the first time since before the covid-19 pandemic, a group of foreign student workers arrived in Ocean City.
Kasey Simon, the president of sponsor organization United Work and Travel, said the three students, who arrived from Thailand, are quarantining in their homes, awaiting the green light to begin working at whatever local businesses are set to employ them this season.
âWe have worked with about 90 employers throughout Ocean City and West Ocean City,â Simon said. âThey are all vetted, approved and educated with covid protocols in place.â
As one of several sponsor companies that recruit and place students for the international J-1 student work and travel program, United Work and Travel typically supplies between 1,000 and 1,200 students annually to the areaâs workforce, Simon said.
47abc
February 1, 2021
OCEAN CITY, MD-
Now that the 10 pm curfew has been lifted restaurants in Ocean City say they are eager to keep their doors open.
Susan Jones of the Ocean City Hotel Motel Restaurant Association tells 47ABC, “It certainly gives them the opportunity to really see the light at the end of the tunnel saying, hey, they can make it, they can push through.”
While restaurants and bars have been open in some capacity, the curfew lift will be a help especially to local musicians.
Jones continues, “That we can no longer have to shut down at a certain time, its really great news for the restaurant industry. And even better for people making a living playing live music because that particular segment was really damaged.”
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