BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — As you drive down Plank Road in Altoona, you’ll see “now hiring” signs lining the street. Even some places joke about the need for new employees.

Delgrosso’s Amusement Park is still looking to hiring more than 100 workers for their summer season. 

“It’s the first time going into the season that we’ve been at this deficit.” Amy Mearkle, Director of Marketing and Events at DelGrosso’s, said.

One of the reasons they think kids aren’t applying is due to busy summertime schedules.

“We understand students do want to be students sometimes and they’re gonna go on family vacations and they’re gonna camps, and we’ll work around that,” Mearkle said.

Statistics from the Bureau of Labor show there’s a drop kids working between the ages of 16 to 19. In fact, it’s been on the decline since the 1970s, but there is a spike in the number of younger workers during the summer season. And the majority of teens that do work go to retail or food services.

“I actually went through 207 applications,” Travis McCabe, co-owner of Greenbean Coffee House, said.

McCabe added they’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of people applying for a job at their shop,.

“In our industry, I don’t have any problems really looking for potential employees. In fact, i’m going through and trying to weed through and finding the best candidates,” he said.