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Tonya Papanikolas Reporting Across the country, swimming pools have shut down or cut back on hours because they don't have enough lifeguards on staff. Pool managers in Utah say they've definitely started having a harder time filling lifeguard positions.
Fortunately, it's not a crisis here yet; Utah is better off than many states. The reason is, those who do the hiring say they've been very proactive in recruiting.
Working by the pool to help save lives. Sounds like a great summer job, right?
Jacoby Jacobsen, Lifeguard: "It's a great way to get a tan, and you get paid to be out here."
But lifeguards are in short supply these days.
Lyse Durrant, Cottonwood Heights Aquatics Manager: "I do know of pools locally that are only open a limited number of hours because they don't have the staff to do what they need to do."
Cottonwood Heights says it was fortunate. Staff hoped for 105 lifeguards and instructors this summer. Though it got tough to find them near the end, they ended up with 100.
Lyse Durrant: "We offered a couple more lifeguard training classes this fall. We actually started last October in our classes."
The Kearns-Oquirrh Fitness Center now employs 120 lifeguards, after adding a new kid's pool. They also started recruiting in the Fall.
Sam Page, Kearns-Oquirrh Aquatic Supervisor: "I hit the high schools. I actually even hit the middle schools cause most of the 9th graders are 15. They can start working."
Kearns-Oquirrh also increased its lifeguarding hourly wage by almost a dollar to keep valued staff around.
Sam Page: "You can easily lose your staff to, 'well, I can go work somewhere else and make more money.'"
And teens have a lot of jobs to pick from in the summer. Some shy away from lifeguarding because it's a big responsibility that requires a lot of training.
Karen Wiker, Kearns-Oquirrh Lifeguard: "We have to basically learn how to do the appropriate rescues and CPR."
Jacoby Jacobsen, Cottonwood Heights Lifeguard: "When you're here, you have to watch out for the safety of other people. And I think that's a lot of pressure on a lot of teenagers."
While the supply of lifeguards may be going down, the demand is increasing.
Patti O'Connor, Red Cross of Utah: "There's not just more pools, but there's pools adding on to their pools. So they're adding more features, which means you need more staff."
Though you can't be a lifeguard until you're 15, the Red Cross now has a program called GuardStart that trains 11 to 14-year-olds.
They figure if they can get those kids interested at a younger age, they'll have a larger pool to pick from a few years down the road.
