June job report shows employment is up; employers say otherwise
Things continue to look up for the country's job market, as the June job report showed that more than 372,000 jobs were added last month.
However, things aren't as good for local business owners in Los Angeles.
CBSLA Reporter Joy Benedict talked to the co-owner of Casita, a new Mexican restaurant in Sherman Oaks on Ventura Boulevard.
Paul Carrol, who co-owns the restaurant, told Benedict that the business is still short on staff two weeks after opening.
"We've been looking for management for months and hourly employees for two months," Carrol said.
Carrol had to open the restaurant with three quarters the amount of employees he originally hoped to start with.
"We were able to get the tip employees like servers, bartenders a little more easily than others. Any salary employees like management, near impossible," Carrol said.
Economists like Christopher Thornberg, who is the founding partner of Beacon Economics, told Benedict the same issues business owners like Carrol are facing in finding employees could become more prevalent in the months ahead.
"Labor shortages are here and they're going to be here for a long time. Today's numbers were really good. Unemployment is 3.6-percent, added almost 400-thousand jobs," Thornberg said. "It certainly contradicts those ridiculous chicken little recession calls we've been hearing lately."
But of course every rose has its thorn. In this post-pandemic world that could mean there just aren't enough workers.
"Everybody feels quite wealthy and they're out there trying to buy everything and that is yes causing problems with supply chain and of course means there is an enormous demand for labor out there particularly in the sectors recovering from the pandemic - hotels, restaurants, recreation centers," Thornberg said.