New Texas Association Of Business Says Majority Of Members Blame Government For Worker Shortage
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW) - It's impossible to miss the 'Now Hiring' signs all over North Texas these days.
Restaurants are struggling to find people to fill their open positions.
"On top of increased food costs, we have a difficult time keeping staff, finding staff, retaining staff," said Ron Peddicord, owner of Duff's Famous Wings.
Desperation has forced some of them to get creative.
"There's even some people who are offering interview bonuses, where if you come to an interview with us – just an interview – we're going to give you 50 bucks," said David Cathey, a recruiting expert with Unity Search Group.
Even offering new incentives doesn't seem to be getting people in the door.
A new survey from the Texas Association of Business found the majority of its members blame the current federal unemployment benefits for the problem.
Of the 177 businesses surveyed:
48% have 1-5 positions currently available
11% have 6-10 positions available
11% have 20 or more available positions
21% say they do not currently have any available positions.
80 percent call for an end to the $300 a week supplement, which started at the height of the pandemic.
"We're in a completely different situation today," said Glenn Hamer, president & CEO of the Texas Association of Business. "There are jobs that are ready and that are good jobs, and companies can't get them filled."
Outside of the unemployment situation, there are other reasons the worker shortage could last longer than anticipated.
"What we see a lot of people doing is re-skilling and up-skilling what they're capable of doing, and a lot of them have been getting into some type of digital transformation job and using that skillset," said Cathey.
Other people may not be willing to go back into the service industry because of health and safety concerns, as well as ongoing childcare needs.
"That leads to potentially a reduction in the labor force willing to do that work, which is a scary thought when you have Americans chomping at the bit to get back out there and spend their money," Cathey said.
It's forcing restaurants to make hard decisions to stay open with limited staff.
"The bottom line it comes back to is we don't have enough workers," said Peddicord.
