from remote to in-person learning. Other adults
may have been discouraged from seeking work
because of generous federal unemployment
benefits, though many states have dropped these
benefits, and they will end nationwide on Sept. 6.
So businesses are offering signing bonuses and
whatever else they can to hire teens in a hurry.
Wendy’s, which relies on teens to salt fries and
ring up orders, added a way for applicants to
apply for a job through their smartphones.
Applicants are screened using artificial
intelligence, which gets them to an interview
faster than if they uploaded a resume. The idea is
to hire them before another employer can.
“Speed is critical,” said Randy Pianin, CEO of JAE
Restaurant Group, a franchisee that owns 220
Wendy’s locations. As a perk, JAE is offering
workers a way to get hold of some of their pay
the day after they earn it, Pianin said, instead of
having to wait two weeks for a paycheck.
Boomers Parks has raised pay at the eight
amusement parks it owns and is offering
bonuses of up to $50 a week for some teen
workers who stay through the summer,
CEO Tim Murphy said. With fewer people
seemingly willing to take the jobs, Murphy said,
competition for workers is fierce.
At its Sahara Sam’s water park in West Berlin,
New Jersey, the company lowered its minimum
working age to 15 from 16 to try to recruit a
larger pool of candidates.
Johnathon Miller thought he would need to
wait until August, when he turned 16, to start
working. But when he heard about a lowered
age limit at Sahara Sam’s, he applied — and got