04/21/08 Summer Jobs

Summer Jobs. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Students looking for a really good summer job and are willing to do a little hard work can make a really nice chunk of change. Youth Employment Outreach program is getting ready to launch into its third year. Mike Villegas with WorkSource Yakima. VILLEGAS: We were talking to two ag employers and they were thinking there might be a labor shortage and is there other ways we could tap into a new labor force. The idea quickly gelled that the youth work force was an open market. He says they brought in L&I on the program and started talking to schools. The program got off to a good start 3 years ago. VILLEGAS: And I think for the first year we had 75 kids that came to the orientation that were interested and we talked about what WorkSource does and the labor exchange and then we had L&I talk about the labor laws and then employers talked about responsibilities and the conditions and telling them how it is; it's not as easy as it looks and the kids were interested. The program has started taking off in other areas of the state as well and Villegas says they are off to a good start. VILLEGAS: This year we already have 10 schools that want to do this and we just got done confirming employers and we already have about 15 employers that are willing to be present at the orientations. If you have students that are interested in summer ag jobs contact your local WorkSource office. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.