ORLANDO, Fla. – IAAPA is an international theme park and attractions trade show where those in the industry showcase new trends and brainstorm about the future of the industry.
IAAPA, which stands for International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, wrapped up their expo at the Orange County Convention Center on Friday.
Their CEO said there is huge growth in the industry.
“There will be plenty more jobs because you need to upgrade those attractions,” said IAAPA President and CEO Jakob Wahl. “You need to upgrade those new parks. You need to upgrade those new hotels. There will be more jobs to come, I can guarantee you that.”
Universal’s new theme park Epic Universe is set to open next May, and is expected to generate about 14,000 new jobs.
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It’s no secret that many theme park jobs don’t pay enough to keep up with the high cost of living.
According to well regarded recruitment website ZipRecruiter, as of 2024, salaries for theme park jobs vary by role and employer, but the average hourly pay is $15.63 for an amusement park attendant.
For Disney World, the average is about $18, still not enough for many of their employees to find adequate housing. They have earmarked about 80 acres of land to build about a 1,000 affordable homes for employee use in Horizon West.
But there are also many other indirect jobs, like those at Bob’s Space Racers, makers of Whack-a-Mole in Daytona Beach.
“We employ all trades with the business where we, you know, woodworkers, lamination workers, metalworkers, welders, basically all, all trades,” said Larry Steele, an executive with Bob’s Space Racers.
Salaries may also be affected by trend toward AI and robots, but Wahl does not see it destroying the theme park job market.
“We are in the hospitality industry and as great robots are, we will never they will never replace the human interaction,” Wahl told News 6.
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