SHIOCTON, Wis. (WFRV) – ‘We’re Hiring’ signs are everywhere and because of the competition in the job market wages are rising, making it harder for summer camps to keep up when it comes to staffing.

Dani Englebert, the Chief Operating Officer of the YMCA of the Fox Cities said, “It did take us longer this year to staff. We did find wages need to be competitive. There wasn’t as many applicants this year as we’ve had in the past.”

Camp staff said this was one of the most competitive summers they have ever faced when it comes to hiring.

John Benberg, the Executive Director of the Brigade said, “It was a very competitive market to get every role filled. As a matter of fact, a couple of our seasoned chore staff negotiated with us pretty hard on their compensation and made it more market.”

The staff at both the YMCA of the Fox Cities and the Brigade said they have enough staff and volunteers to stay in ratio and safely run their programs.

“We have the number of chore staff that we were seeking but it was close. We didn’t have a lot of extras so we were fortunate to get what we needed,” said Benberg.

“We’ll always take some additional staff or some additional volunteers through the summer if folks are interested or haven’t gotten their summer job yet,” said Englebert.

Staff at the YMCA of the Fox Cities says they are still hiring and more staff means they can take kids off the waitlist and expand their programs.