In a new report alongside a photograph of Ocean City, Md., Grandparents.com ranks Ocean City, N.J., among the Top 10 cities in the U.S. for job-seekers age 50 and older.
"Why in the world would we include a touristy beach town with higher-than-average unemployment and negative job growth?" Kristen Sturt writes in the feature.
Well, many people in Ocean City, a seasonal town of 11,701 year-round residents, might just wonder why they would. Tiny Ocean City is ranked beside Washington, D.C., Seattle, Salt Lake City and all of northwestern Texas.
The answer: "Because almost 30 percent of the town is over age 65, fairly affluent, and needing services that cater directly to them. Jobs like personal care aides, supporting health care workers and hairdressers are in high demand," Sturt writes. "Of course, tourist industry workers do well, too, particularly in the summer and double if you have experience piloting a boat, managing a hotel, or serving plates of clams."
Asked if he were aware of any boat piloting jobs or hotel management jobs in town,
Giovanni Simione, a spokesperson for Grandparents.com, said he was not, and that the feature was based on Ocean City itself and not a larger geographic area.
"Ocean City was chosen for several reasons. Its unemployment rate is 8.4% and its job-growth rate is 3.9% in education and health services, and 3.6% in government," he wrote in a news release.
Cities making the list include:
- Morgantown, West Virginia
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Seattle, Washington
- Gainesville, Florida
- Ithaca, New York
- Washington, D.C.Salt Lake City, Utah
- Ocean City, New Jersey
- Rochester, Minnesota
- Northwest Texas
To see the complete feature on "great cities for over-50 job seekers," visit:
http://www.grandparents.com/money-and-work/career/best-cities-jobs
