The Shore summer job is back — but will Jersey kids show up?

Something happened this week that made me smile. Wawa announced it's hiring hundreds of workers for the summer of 2026 at more than 35 Jersey Shore locations. And honestly, it hit me in a few ways at once.

First, the practical part — there are real opportunities right now with a great company for hard-working South Jerseyans who are ready to make a move. But the other thing it did was remind me that summer is not as far away as it feels. The snow has melted. The daffodils are cracking through. The motorcycles are back weaving between lanes. And hiring is happening all up and down all 141 miles of Jersey Shore coastline.

Jersey Shore jobs 2026: who's hiring right now

It's not just Wawa. State parks are looking to fill more than 800 seasonal positions — lifeguards, naturalists, maintenance staff, visitor services — with starting pay around $16.50 an hour and paid training provided. Boardwalk amusement parks like Casino Pier and Morey's Piers are hiring kids as young as 14. And from there, the list goes on — boardwalk food stands, pizza joints, fudge shops, novelty stores, ice cream windows, sundry shops. Every single one of them needs people. The Shore machine runs on summer workers, and the engine is warming up right now.

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A rite of passage that built generations of Jersey kids

For Shore kids who lived east of the Garden State Parkway, a summer job on or near the boardwalk wasn't just a paycheck. It was a rite of passage. You met kids from other school districts, from other parts of New Jersey, from other states entirely. You learned how to deal with the public — the happy vacationers, the difficult ones, the ones who became regulars you actually looked forward to seeing. You learned how to show up on time, how to work a rush, how to be part of a team. Business skills, people skills, life skills — all of it absorbed between Memorial Day and Labor Day with sand in your shoes and salt air in your hair. There was no better classroom.

The worker shortage that's putting the Shore at risk

Here's the part that doesn't get talked about enough. Over the past few decades it's become harder and harder to fill Shore positions with local young people. The gap has been filled — quietly and significantly — by international college students here on J-1 visas, arriving from Europe and beyond to work the summer season. It became a system that worked. And now that system is suddenly uncertain, with federal cuts threatening the State Department programs that support it. Shore business owners are genuinely worried. One operations director put it plainly — the volume of jobs in such a short window simply can't be filled by local workers alone. At least not the way things have been going.

But here's what I'd say to any Jersey kid or young adult who's on the fence: the opportunity has always been there. It's there right now. And I hope they see it — not just for the money, but for everything else that comes with it. The skills you take home from a Shore summer have a way of staying with you for the rest of your life. The memories do too.

The Shore is hiring. Go get it.