Unemployment Levels Explode, But Labor Shortage Remains
Posted by estiator at 5 August, at 08 : 59 AM Print
STAFFING
By CONSTANTINE N. KOLITSAS
You’d think that the economic meltdown associated with the COVID-19 pandemic would send waves of job seekers back to the restaurants, ending the labor shortage that the industry has experienced over the past several years. But so far, this has not happened.
Walk into many of the restaurants that are open (with limited seating) in the Northeast and you’ll see “Help Wanted” signs up. Look at Craigslist or Indeed.com, and postings for restaurant positions are everywhere. What gives?
We spoke with one restaurant owner who asked to remain anonymous about the challenges he is facing. Surprisingly, staffing was more of concern than the myriad challenges associated with the pandemic.
“We’ve been dealing with the pandemic now for over four months, and we understand it,” he says. “We understand how to operate, which parts of the business to leverage, how to get the word out. Once we had all of that figured out and the necessary changes to our operations were implemented, it was the same nagging headache that came back: finding competent people to commit to the restaurant.”
The front-of-the-house has been something of a challenge, with the federal unemployment bonus keeping people home because they simply made more money not working than if they reported for work as usual. But the demand for front-of-the-house has not been as urgent, with the numbers of dine-in (outdoors and indoors) customers still not near what they were, and with takeout and delivery still being the key drivers of the business.
The most difficult position to fill, he says, is dishwasher/prep. The availability of Latino workers in the summer, he says, is limited, with most opting to work for local landscapers who pay twice the wage they would earn in the restaurant. President Trump’s war on immigrants and the lack of political will to admit low-wage workers from Latin America further frustrates the problem.
“We have had zero luck in hiring non-Latinos for our entry-level kitchen positions,” he says. “It’s a grueling job, and the kitchen is hot. They last one day, two days, and then they’re gone without notice. Just last week, we hired a local young man who is a restaurant patron. He needed the work and had some prior restaurant experience. At the end of the night, he disappeared, leaving pots in the sink. We went to empty the trash can at the dish station and found it filled with dirty dishes and utensils. He would rather throw them out than take another 10 minutes and finish the job properly.”
This, he says, is true of other non-Latinos that he’s given a chance to over the years.
“They feel that the work is below them,” he says. “They grumble, groan, and don’t do the work.”
Teenagers, he says, are simply overwhelmed.
“I remember when I was a kid, I started by washing dishes. It wasn’t a pretty job, but I did my best. I was 14 the first time I worked in a kitchen, washing breakfast dishes that were caked in egg yolk and cigarette butts. It was smelly and hot. But I took pride in myself and my work. That ethic doesn’t exist today, at least not in the back-of-the-house.”
Finding cooks is just as difficult.
“We’ve had a bit of luck with the job websites, but most of our successful hires are cooks who know about us from working in the area,” he says. “Our reputation as a great restaurant makes us an attractive option that builds their résumé. The challenge, then, becomes a question of how to keep them. Everyone who joins as a line cook wants to be a chef, and there can be only one top dog.”
Still, he says, once they join, they stay for years, leaving usually to move up in their career.
“At the end of the day, the notion of exploding unemployment numbers is like a mirage,” he says. “Whether it’s because of government handouts that disincentivize our workers to return to work or the sheer lack of quality people, our labor headaches have not dissipated as you might think.”
