DAYTONA Beach — Jennifer Pickett was all smiles as she emerged from an interview at an open up-dwelling job reasonable this earlier 7 days at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort.

Pickett, 45, who remaining her position as an assistant supervisor at a senior assisted living facility in Palm Coastline in the wake of COVID-similar stresses of 2020, was thrilled about the prospects of a hospitality career.

“I truly believe this entire space, Daytona Seaside, is hopping all over again,” she reported, pursuing an job interview that she hoped would direct to a task in reservations or client provider. “I consider the Hilton is a elegant, refined hotel, with a great feel to it. I assume it would be a excellent hotel to do the job for.

“There should be hundreds of folks below,” she explained. “I really do not know why there aren’t.”

In fact, company is booming at Volusia County hotels this summer season, with occupancy and tourism mattress-tax collections topping the destination’s overall performance for pre-COVID 2019.

Hisa Tamura, a guest services employee, rolls a guest's luggage to their car during check-out on Monday at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort. The 744-room hotel, the largest in Daytona Beach, is among the Volusia County hotels struggling to hire workers as summer tourism is booming, a reflection of a national trend.

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Support (actually wanted):Volusia dining establishments, lodges wrestle to retain the services of workers

 Yet a lot of motels are even now battling to retain the services of employees to bolster workforces downsized by pandemic-associated team reductions a year back.Only a trickle of applicants — a dozen or so — arrived over the initially two hrs of the Hilton’s occupation reasonable, a 5-hour window for interviews about a vast range of positions that provided bartenders, cooks, front-deck supervisors, security officers, reservationists and other roles at the 744-space lodge, the major in Daytona Seashore.