Lifeguard Caleb Staats, 18, watches swimmers at Pavilion Center Pool in Las Vegas Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The City of Las Vegas is providing to $800 money benefits for some task applicants at community swimming pools. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhotoLifeguard Caleb Staats, 18, views swimmers at Pavilion Center Pool in Las Vegas Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The City of Las Vegas is providing to $800 money bonuses for some candidates at municipal pools. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhotoLifeguard Jace Wilkie, 19, enjoys swimmers at Pavilion Center Pool in Las Vegas Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The City of Las Vegas is providing to $800 money bonuses for some task applicants at local pools. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhotoLifeguard Caleb Staats, 18, enjoys swimmers at Pavilion Center Pool in Las Vegas Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The City of Las Vegas is offering up to $800 cash rewards for some job candidates at community pools. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhotoLifeguard Emma Davis, 17, views swimmers at Pavilion Center Pool in Las Vegas Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The City of Las Vegas is offering up to $800 money perks for some job candidates at community pools. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhotoLifeguard Jace Wilkie, 19, enjoys swimmers at Pavilion Center Pool in Las Vegas Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The City of Las Vegas is offering up to $800 money bonus offers for some job applicants at municipal swimming pools. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
Rachel Harmon keeps in mind a time when every lifeguard certification class was fully registered and the city of Las Vegas had no problem employing for the swimming pools' busy season.

Now, the city is lucky to get 3 trainees in the class. As the summertime draws nearer, the aquatics group is searching for employees to fill the approximately 100 open positions required to keep swimming pools throughout the valley open and totally operational, stated Harmon, an aquatics professional with the city.

And like last year, when increased wages and retention bonuses were first brought in, they will need to pay extra.

The city will pay lifeguards a $15 an hour base wage, up from $12 last year, and up to $800 for a retention benefit, up from $500. The extra cash benefits were required because of combined results in 2015, Harmon stated.

The city also will pay for a brand-new hire's lifeguard certification class - - a modification from last - year - as it takes on other municipal and gambling establishment pools.

" It didn't exercise too well in 2015, so we're doing more of the very same thing this year, however something we added were the complimentary classes," Harmon stated. "A great deal of individuals aren't working as much as they used to, so $160 is quite large to pay for a class (when) you don't even understand if you're going to get (the) task."

It's déé jà à vu for some pool operators. In 2015, a number of public swimming pools in the Las Vegas Valley began shortening hours and even carrying out daylong closures as they came to grips with a scarcity of lifeguards. Now, many are increasing their rewards as they fight Las Vegas' tight labor market.

North Las Vegas' Parks and Recreation Department stated its biggest hiring push is in the aquatics department. Leisure Supervisor Angela Johnson stated she wishes to hire at least 40 lifeguards to run the city's three swimming pools.

Johnson stated she is expecting to hire enough individuals this year so they do not need to cut swimming pool hours.

North Las Vegas is providing a per hour minimum of $16, with free accreditation classes, approximately $500 in retention bonuses and the ability to work more than 29 hours a week if the worker is only there for the summer.

" It's a struggle to get lifeguards even if I think a lot of the high schoolers do not realize you don't simply walk in and get employed today," Johnson stated. "It takes a little bit of a process - - clearly the lifeguard class is a 40-hour class. So it's something you have to be wishing to do because it's not an easy class."

Las Vegas prepares to host an Aquatics Hiring Fair on May 6 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Municipal Pool on East Bonanza Road, where job seekers can finish the whole process from an interview, swim test and hiring to onboarding.

Harmon said if the job fairs and rewards aren't successful at generating applicants, then the city may need to cut swimming pool hours and services again.

" When I got accredited in the '90s, my coworkers were my swim staff member," Harmon said. "We were all in lifeguard training class together. Now, the lifeguard training classes aren't even complete. It's sad."

Others see labor market loosening

Other summer-related services are feeling more confident as their hiring ramps up.

Emily Sowers, executive director of the Bill and Lillie Heinrich YMCA in central Las Vegas, said that the area's lifeguard staff is practically fully employed and it expects summertime camp counselor positions to be completely staffed.

Sowers attributes the success to the nonprofit's Train to Work program that spent for lifeguard important abilities training. She said the complimentary program was so successful that they're referring some of the prospects to local hotel-casino pools.

" This is a considerable difference in what we've experienced the last few summers, so we're feeling really confident about our aquatic staffing circumstance this summertime," Sowers stated. "Last year, we had numerous positions to fill leading up to our outside pools' opening. We remain in a far better location in 2023 than we have actually remained in the last couple years."

At Desert Pines Golf Club, Senior General Manager Bill Wickboldt said the busy spring season that typically ends about mid-June is well-staffed compared to the pandemic period.

" We went through the exact same thing during the pandemic that the Strip went through, where it was hard to personnel," Wickboldt said. "But I've seen this spring, and we've got an actually excellent group in location and we've got enough of them, so I'm motivated by our situations."

The course frequently employs youths, frequently UNLV trainees in the PGA golf management program, and retired people, who desire the advantages of playing golf free of charge.

Still, the Arcis Golf-operated course raised salaries and added health advantages for part-time employees to attract candidates this year, he said.

"We certainly heard the labor market over the last few years," he said.

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that puts journalists into regional newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.