Café Natasha is turning away customers because it can’t find enough workers. Two Maids & A Mop has turned down cleaning jobs for the same reason. And a shortage of technicians is forcing The Sound Room to stretch out installation times for home electronics.
Welcome to the contradiction at the center of the COVID-era labor market: Even in an economy with 8.3 million fewer jobs than it had at the start of the pandemic, employers are posting job openings at a record rate — and saying they can’t fill them.
This paradox has various explanations. Many workers left the labor force last year to avoid exposure to the virus, and haven’t returned. Others quit to be home with their children after schools closed.
Many employers believe their potential workers aren’t applying for jobs because they’re content to live off stimulus checks and unemployment insurance. Several studies last year debunked the notion that enhanced jobless benefits were discouraging work, but back then there really weren’t jobs to be had. Now, there are.
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The Labor Department counted 7.4 million job openings in February, topping the pre-pandemic level of 7 million. The openings equal 4.9% of all jobs, which is a record high.
Jordan Black, owner of Two Maids & A Mop in Chesterfield, said his volume of job applicants fell by two-thirds when the latest stimulus payments went out. He’d like to hire six to eight people in the next month, a significant expansion of his 17-person staff, but he can’t find them.
“We’re getting more phone calls (from customers) than we ever have,” Black said. “It’s a good time for business but it hasn’t been a good time for matching that with staffing.”
At Café Natasha on South Grand Boulevard, owner Natasha Bahrami said she could use about five more employees. The cafe is open just four nights a week, down from six before the pandemic, but she still doesn’t have enough staff to serve all would-be diners.
“We turn away tables and takeouts every night,” Bahrami said. “We’re struggling from back of house to front of house.”
Bahrami urges diners to be patient and realize that restaurants are understaffed right now. She also fears that many workers who once loved the restaurant business probably aren’t coming back.
“A lot of wonderful, smart people were forced to move to different industries to have some sort of stability in their lives,” Bahrami said. “This industry had been very attractive to be in, and now it’s turned unstable.”
Businesses that were relatively unscathed by the pandemic also are finding it difficult to recruit workers. David Young, president of The Sound Room in Chesterfield, said a customer who orders a home theater will probably wait five or six weeks for installation, up from three before the pandemic.
“I would hire five more people today if I could find them,” said Young, who knows he’s lost business because customers didn’t want to wait so long.
As Americans become vaccinated, industries from restaurants to hotels to entertainment will need to hire back workers, and they may find it difficult to do so. “People who were successful in finding employment beyond leisure and hospitality may not be inclined to go back to those jobs,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com.
If anything, Hamrick predicts, employers will find recruiting even more difficult as the economy picks up steam. “It was a quite disorderly process to shut the economy down a year ago,” he said. “This reopening is also an unprecedented effort.”