The government will issue 66,000 visas this year.

PORTLAND (AP) – Businesses that cater to summer tourists are looking to the Virgin Islands in the face of a looming shortage of seasonal workers.

The labor situation is “dire,” said Greg Dugal, executive director of the Maine Innkeepers Association. “The worst-case scenario is that we’ll be 30 to 40 percent understaffed this summer,” he said.

Tourism and labor officials say the problem stems from a federal visa program, under which foreign workers come to the United States. Maine businesses used about 2,400 such workers last year, Dugal said.

Federal officials set a national cap of 66,000 visas this year, slightly below the number issued last year.

Maureen Oosten runs Workers on the Move, which supplies seasonal workers in New England, said she decided to recruit workers from the Virgin Islands for Maine businesses a few months ago. Virgin Islands residents are U.S. citizens, and can work in the United States in large numbers.

Oosten said she may place as many as 2,000 workers with clients throughout New England.

“We’ve been going 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past six or seven weeks,” Oosten said.

Cecil R. Benjamin, labor commissioner for the Virgin Islands, said his department is eager to help supply workers. The program not only supplies jobs during the yearly downturn, but it also gives residents experience in an industry where jobs back home are plentiful.

Laura Fortman, Maine’s commissioner of labor, supports efforts to find workers to fill seasonal jobs. She also wants businesses to look close to home.

“We’re trying to make sure that all of the folks that are currently looking for work are aware of the jobs that are available,” she said.

Though the state is unsure how widespread the seasonal worker shortage may be this year, state officials have begun setting up programs to help retirees find seasonal work to supplement their incomes.

Dugal said innkeepers may have to do some of the work that seasonal workers have done in the past.

“They’ll do what they have to do,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it a catastrophe, but it’s going to be very difficult.”

AP-ES-05-01-04 1349EDT