Thinking about a summer job? How about something with people on vacation happily splashing their way through an afternoon? Or families and kids just having fun in the sun? And then there’s the sizzle of the hot dogs.

Wild Waves Theme Park in Federal Way is looking to fill up to 1,000 seasonal positions, and will host a job fair on Saturday, April 18 from noon to 4:00 p.m. at the park.

Interviews will be held at the job fair.

A press release today offers that “individuals over 16 years of age, retirees, or individuals simply looking for a second job are all encouraged to apply online only at www.wildwaves.com no later than Friday, April 17 in order to pre-register for an interview.”

The park will be hiring for a variety of jobs including ride operations, food service, retail, aquatics, admissions, park services, security, games, maintenance, group sales, rentals, parking and human resources.

The park, which offers over 60 rides, slides and other attractions, is scheduled to partially open on May 16 -17, and fully open on weekends from May 23-June 14, and open daily beginning on June 15.

For more information, interested applicants may contact the Wild Waves Theme Park human resources office at 253-661-8027.

The Boeing Co. continued to hire new hourly workers even as it was considering mass layoffs early this year, the company's largest union claims.

The International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 751 said that of the 26 hourly workers the company put on the payroll since the Jan. 9 announcement of major layoffs at the company, 23 have already received notices that their new jobs are disappearing.

The union claims that many of those new hires gave up better-paying positions to join Boeing in hopes of advancing through the ranks to better jobs.

Some even moved across the country to join Boeing. They worked only a few days before receiving warning notices that their jobs were ending in 60 days, the union said.

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said the company regrets having to lay off people it just hired, but the quickly-changing economy surprised Boeing with its rapid decline.

"The hiring process is one that can take many weeks," Healy said. "There was an awful lot of uncertainty in the economy late last year. Between the time we decided to hire these people and the time they reported for work, the situation had changed dramatically."

Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Scott Carson announced Jan. 9 that the company would be laying off some 4,500 workers in the commercial airplanes division in 2009.

Carson cited the deteriorating market for air travel and the stressed financial markets as reason for the payroll reductions.

The union says its members began hearing rumors of possible layoffs last fall and implored the company to stop hiring. Boeing kept hiring, the union said.

"Every one of them (the new hires) would have selected a different path had they suspected their employment would be so short-lived," a union spokeswoman said.

Boeing's Healy said the layoff order is governed by the contract that both the Machnists and Boeing signed last fall. That contract calls for the workers with the lowest seniority to be laid off first.

The terminated workers won't receive any severance pay unless they had been employed a year.

They will receive six months of paid medical care and job search help from the company even if their tenure is short, he said.

The workers who have received 60-day layoff warning notices are also eligible to apply for other jobs within the company.

Alaska Airlines' experiment with a satellite airborne Internet system on one of its airliners hase has been well received by its customers, the airline says.

Some 96 percent of users who tried the airborne Internet system aboard an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-700 since the start of the test in late February say they will use the system again, the airline said.

Other findings:

*More than 78 percent said they were either "extremely likely" or "very likely" to recommend the system to others.

*Some 75 percent rated the system "excellent" or "very good."

*About 75 percent used "smart phones" to access the Internet aboard the flights while the remainder used their own laptops or notebook computers.

The airline, satisfied that there's a demand for the service, now will be testing various price models to determine what level works best for the airline and its customers.

The first six weeks of service was free.

The airline plans to begin installing the satellite-based system on other planes in its fleet later this year.

That system is provided by Row44, the same southern California company that is furnishing a similar system to Southwest Airlines.

Alaska chose the satellite system because it can provide uninterrupted service throughout its route system that stretches from Adak in Alaska to Hawaii in the Pacific. The airline flies to Boston, New York, Washington, D.C. and Florida on the East Coast.

Other airlines are using a ground-based communication system for their Internet offerings. Such a system would leave Alaska's jets overflying the Pacific or in remote regions of Alaska without service.

Reports from the Middle East say Middle Eastern investors are interested in buying Textron Inc.'s civil aircraft assets and selling its defense businesses to The Boeing Co.

That defense sale would include Textron's Bell Helicopter division. Bell and Boeing jointly produce the V-22 Osprey, a plane that takes off like a helicopter and cruises like a conventional aircraft.

Boeing makes the aircraft's fuselage in Pennsylvania. Bell makes the plane's wings, its engine enclosures and tail section in Texas where the aircraft is assembled.

The Pentagon has plans to buy 458 of the aircraft for $54 billion.

The first of the V-22s have been deployed to Iraq where the plane is reportedly proving its worth transporting troops and responding to emergencies.

The Osprey has stubby wings at the end of which are large nacelles that enclose the aircraft engines.

For takeoff and landing the nacelles are rotated upward so that the large blades operate like a helicopter. Once the aircraft is in the air, the nacelles are rotated to a horizontal position, and the blades pull the aircraft forward.

Australia's Qantas, smacked by declining business and a fare war between the U.S. and Australia, is delaying delivery of new aircraft from both Boeing and Europe's Airbus.

The flagship airline announced it will defer deliveries of four super jumbo Airbus A380s and 12 single-aisle Boeing 737-800s.

The 737s, built in Rentonm, will be delayed an average of 14 months.

Qantas also announced it is talking with Boeing about delays on the delivery of some of the 787 Dreamliners it has on order.

The Dreamliner is already about two years behind its original delivery schedule, so a delay isn't necessarily a bad thing for Boeing.

The airline said it expects profits to drop to less than half its 2008 levels this year. It is reducing capital expenditures by $584 million this year and laying off 500 managers. The airline plans to reduce its capacity by 5 percent.

Washington's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 9.2 percent in March, up from 8.3 percent the previous month, according to figures released by the state's Employment Security Department today.

The state lost an estimated 20,000 jobs last month. There was no significant growth in any major industry or sector, according the ESD's news release.

An estimated 344,000 people were unemployed and looking for work.

Pierce County recorded an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent, up from 9.2 percent in February. The county figures are not seasonally adjusted.

More than 42,800 people in the Tacoma-area were unemployed and hunting for a job last month, the state reports.