I am also a Park Ranger Seasonal, and I want to do this full time in the best way. The oppurtunities are slim it seems. I was collecting unemployment, and then a review recently found me ineligibe in the state of Washington since it my job searching for other seasonal jobs was not a realistic job search. I know some feel one way here in this forum, To me I feel really hurt that they are not treating my career that I love so much, that I have so much passion for, as a rear career worthy of support, when I am a caretaker of americas sacred lands.

In both patterns, it effectively translates to a wage subsidy. There’s nothing wrong with having a part-time work force that expects (and desires) to only work seasonally and to not necessarily earn a “living wage” doing so. There’s substantial inequity in forcing premium payers to make up for short wages where the workers expect to live year-round on whatever they earn for less than a full year’s employment.

They fought with the same sort of problems. One thing they’ve started to get into recently is selling boats, and I think a possible factor could be that in the winter, they can keep some of these workers on staff for boat shows and the like in the winter, so that they don’t have to deal with the unemployment hassles.

To a libertarian, unemployment benefits are by their very nature a bad thing. But even if you recognize their legitimacy, it’s another instance of the government bringing a bludgeoning tool when a scalpel might be more useful. They don’t have incentive to disburse that money wisely when it’s not their money to begin with.

Mind you, in that case it’s the government’s unemployment ratings that are affected.

California is this way because fifteen years ago the state’s economy was run by skilled manufacturing workers who built military jets. There simply wasn’t any other state with a competetive workforce for that kind of job, so the state could get away with a terrible business climate. Well, that’s no longer thte case, but the liberals don’t seem to see it that way. I hate to say it, but I doubt there will be the political backbone to make significant changes in the near future.

If there were some way to hire them as independent contractors, you could save a lot of headaches. Of course, you would create a lot of headaches as well. And, of course, the IRS believes it has a holy assignment to make sure nobody pretends to be an independent contractor when they really aren’t, so that may not be the best thing.

That may be the product of going through what was essentially a temp agency (a high end one, but a temp agency nonetheless) If rules are different for temp agencies in California, it may be worth exploring the cost of the agency to short circuit this and make the positions statutorily temporary too. Many agencies will let you send your preferred workers to them, so you are not stuck with whomever they send out.