T. Bacon’s is just one of many businesses that say they’re short-staffed right now.
“All you have to do to get a job here is come in for your interview and I hire you. And then the second step is showing up for your first day,” Bacon said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings have reached a record high of 8.1 million on the last business day of March, with the job openings rate increasing to 5.3 percent.
Color me SHOCKED that people don’t want to work in an industry right now that can pay less than minimum wage, where you rely on tips from people who may or may not yet feel comfortable coming out, and many places don’t offer health insurance or even full time hours. Places where you are MOST exposed to the public. And in general have to deal with random A-holes and entitled jerks sometimes.
It may take another 6 months or a year for the service industry to recover in general. There are no hard statistics, but it could be that many of the people who worked in the industry have moved on to other jobs now. So many places are looking for reliable bodies, that it could just be that people are choosing to not work in the service industry right now.
If you can’t fill a position it means that you aren’t paying enough. Supply & Demand.
JonnyV, do you think the service industry would get people if they offered $16/hour but house keeps all tips? I really don’t know what a fair min wage would be for servers, but the good ones I have known are very happy with their tip compensation.
I would suggest that the market determines what a fair wage is. If businesses can’t get workers, they will have to raise their wages until they do (or invest in automation). It works the other way too. If a business is getting a flood of qualified applicants, then they can probably afford to lower the wage. It is a dynamic point that varies by business, location, work style, hours, benefits, time, and a host of other factors. To set an arbitrary wage and call it “fair” or “not fair” is idiotic. That is a subjective characterization of a single objective number that is part of a much larger employer/employee relationship.
But the generous unemployment benefits do not allow that market to work. It sets an artificial wage floor – much like a federal or state minimum wage law – that does not allow the market to find equilibrium.
I personally hope that more companies invest in automation. If I could walk into a Culvers and use a kiosk (or app) and have a machine cook my food… I would have no problem with that. When I am at the grocery store, I prefer to use self-checkout. 4 registers monitored by 1 employee. Adapt and move up.
I will be interested to see when the additional unemployment benefits end if it affects the job market, or if those wages decrease.
Tuerqas, I don’t know what is better for a server, both have their pros and cons (higher wages vs tips). Personally I try to tip well. I do know that good servers make anywhere from $20 – $40 an hour any given night depending on some factors. But at this point if they can’t find employees to do THAT job at those rates, then something is still wrong with the environment and it has nothing to do with the unemployment benefits.
I’m not sure pay is the answer doing these restaurant jobs is money but more demographics.
When we were younger, it was mostly kids doing these jobs.
Now, there are fewer kids, fewer kids looking for jobs and many of the jobs they do take are more high tech or working in the big box stores where there is more stability. So, then the restaurants have to rely on older, mostly unskilled workers.
Mar nailed a BIG part of the problem–diminishing numbers of yout’s.
Jonnyv
“:Color me SHOCKED that people don’t want to work in an industry right now that can pay less than minimum wage, where you rely on tips from people who may or may not yet feel comfortable coming out, and many places don’t offer health insurance or even full time hours. ”
“If you can’t fill a position it means that you aren’t paying enough. Supply & Demand.”
“But at this point if they can’t find employees to do THAT job at those rates, then something is still wrong with the environment and it has nothing to do with the unemployment benefits.”
I don’t get your position. You do know the post was featuring restaurant staff, right? Are you saying the service industry is just missing cook staff and bus-boys? I think your first dis-connect is that you think of all wait staff is competent enough to make 20-40 an hour. I think we can be assured that the good ones are not sitting out on unemployment. The ones who average $15 or less are among the ones taking unemployment (which probably includes other types of restaurant help, I am sure) so I would leave unemployment benefits on the table for current hiring woes. And yes, Mar made an excellent point on why there are fewer people in the pool for work in the service industry.