Hold On Seasonal Park Service Hiring Has Some Candidates Looking Elsewhere

By

NPT Staff

Published Date

February 3, 2025

Candidates for seasonal Park Service positions are starting to look elsewhere for work this summer/NPS file

The current hold on seasonal hiring by the National Park Service has some candidates looking elsewhere for work this summer.

"There are quite a few municipal fire departments that are hiring right now. That's my plan B," one job seeker wrote on a Reddit page dedicated to park rangers. "If you're the sort of ranger with [Emergency Medical Training], there is work all over, though the field has many, deep flaws."

After his inauguration to a second term, President Donald Trump implemented a hiring freeze across the federal government while looking for ways to cut the federal workforce. That left an untold number of individuals hoping to land summer jobs with the Park Service in limbo.

As of Monday there was no word on whether the freeze might be lifted for Park Service seasonal workers, who account for roughly 7,500 positions during the busy summer season.

"I’ve been applying to state parks and [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] positions," another on the Reddit thread said. "I've also been keeping an eye for positions at private museums/parks."

Another, showing a sense of humor, said that they'd "[P]robably just go to the park anyway and become a squatter. It's not like they're going to fill the employee housing spots with other people and we were only going to be paid in sunsets anyway."

Others mentioned turning to state parks for jobs.

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