Alan Light / CC
The food service industry is opening nationwide with relaxed restrictions following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That being said, there’s a huge hiring shortage that most businesses are facing right now, especially in the food industry. One of the big issues they face is that there are people who were looking for jobs that have stopped because of the unemployment benefits. For some, they’re making more being unemployed than they would if they actually went back to work.
A few incentives companies are offering are raising wages, offering first-day bonuses, and even some McDonald’s locations for example are even giving new employees iPhones. Businesses are doing whatever they can to get people in the doors for employment. The foodservice industry gives huge demand for food and agriculture products, which shifted to home dining or take out during the pandemic.
With everything getting back to normal, people are back to filling booths and barstools, but restaurants and bars can’t keep up. Federal data shows the foodservice industry added 186,000 jobs last month. Restaurant Business Online reports restaurants now employ 10.8 million workers, recovering 4.5 million workers from the peak of the pandemic. That may seem like a lot, but they’re still 1.5 million workers short of pre-pandemic norms. The labor force participation rate was 61.6% in May, down 1.7% from last February, suggesting there are people leaving the workforce and not yet returning.
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