Summer businesses wonder where the help will come from

LACONIA — Midway during last year’s peak summer tourist season Larry Litchfield shut down the kitchen at Sawyer’s Dairy Bar in Gilford after most of his workers quit.

At the Naswa Resort in Weirs Beach, Cynthia Makris was unable to offer the full range of guest amenities because she could not hire enough help.

It’s a situation they hope they won’t have to grapple with again this year. The opening of the summer tourist season is just three months away, and they are keeping their fingers crossed.

Sawyer’s and the Naswa are among the area hospitality businesses which rely on foreign workers to work as cooks, servers, or housekeepers.

Just weeks after the COVID outbreak last March the Trump administration suspended two visa programs that were a critical source of seasonal workers. The administration said the freeze was necessary to help U.S. citizens find work during a time when many Americans had lost their jobs due to the coronavirus outbreak. That left lots of businesses suddenly in the lurch, because they rely on foreign workers to fill jobs American often don’t want, they say.

“We’re always advertising for help,” said Makris who noted that recent postings on the resort’s website for two full-time positions elicited no response. A job to handle reservation inquiries and bookings is being filled by someone from Puerto Rico.

Makris said it takes between 130 to 144 workers to fully staff the Naswa during its five-months of operation. Last year the resort was only able to hire between 70 and 75 workers. As a result, the Blue Bistro, the Naswa’s indoor restaurant, did not open last year, and the popular beachfront NazBar operated on a reduced schedule.

“It was devastating to operate the business,” Makris said of last year.

The Naswa, like many hospitality businesses, relies on two visa programs. One — the H2B visa program — provides temporary non-farm help for up to six months for businesses where there are not enough U.S. workers who are willing and able to fill the need. The second, the J1 program, is a student cultural exchange visa that allows students to be employed full-time during school vacations and official university breaks for a maximum of 60 days.

No more than 33,000 workers are presently allowed into the U.S. under the H2B program unless Congress authorizes a higher number.

“We need Congress to increase the cap as they have done in past years,” Makris said.

“I’m hoping the J1 program will get some attention” in Washington, Karmen Gifford, president of the Greater Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce said. Those workers have typically filled positions at catering and landscaping businesses, and at restaurants.

The Trump administration extended its most recent freeze on the J1 program last December. That executive order is due to expire at the end of the month unless it is extended by the Biden administration.

Both of New Hampshire’s U.S. senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, said they are pressing the administration to reopen the visa programs, which businesses rely on.

“I’ll continue to push the Biden administration to revoke those remaining (visa) policies so our businesses have access to the workforce they need, especially as New Hampshire’s peak season approaches,” Shaheen said in an email statement.

The program provided more than 4,000 workers in New Hampshire alone in 2018, according to State Department statistics.

Litchfield said the resumption of the J1 program is critical to the restaurant operation at Sawyer’s.

After just about three weeks of the peak summer season, Litchfield had to cut back the operation of the food service side to four days a week, and at the beginning of August he said he had no choice but to shut it down completely.

“The crew I had left was burned out,” he said.

Litchfield, who owns Sawyer’s together with his wife Pati, said they were able to retain the workers in the ice cream bar side of the business, however.

He said he hired nine J1 workers in 2019. They came from South America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe. They were drawn by the opportunity to make some money, as well as the chance to experience life in U.S. Litchfield said he and his wife have seen to it that the J1 workers get to see some of the area’s natural attractions and historic sites.

“They’re here to work and they’re innovative,” Litchfield said.

Because prospects for the resumption of the J1 program this year are uncertain, Litchfield said he is asking those local workers who are planning to come back to Sawyer’s this summer to reach out to their friends and encourage them to apply for a job.

Litchfield said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the upcoming season at Sawyer's.

There are some seasonal businesses which do not hire foreign workers, however.

John Moulton, who operates Moulton’s Farm in Meredith, has been able to get the 50 or so workers he needs from the local labor pool. He said one reason he has had success in that regard is because Moulton’s operates about nine months out of the year. This year, the business is getting set to open on March 17 and will remain open through the end of December.

The number of employees is greatest during the peak summer months when a lot of the workers are local high school students. Those who work during the spring and fall know that “they have to work extremely hard,” Moulton said. He said much of the business’s success has been having “a well-rounded team.”

But Moulton said relying on local workers alone has one drawback. It makes it harder to expand the business.

“As the business grows it will become problematic to hire enough workers,” he said.

Makris said people are looking to travel again after having lived through more than a year of the pandemic. She said the experience of operating the resort in the early months of COVID showed her and her staff how to do more with less.

“You learn how strong you are,” she said.