Why Many U.S. Businesses Can’t Find Employees to Fill Their Vacancies

A Mcdonalds from Tampa, Florida, is offering $ 50 just to show up for a job interview. While, Delta Air Lines had to cancel a hundred flights for lack of personnel. Job postings proliferate many places in the United States, but something strange is happening.

After the initial shock of the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions it forced to shoot unemployment at record levels, now that the situation has improved and vaccination progresses, many companies are facing a problem. unexpected: they cannot find candidates to fill their vacancies.

According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, 40% of employers surveyed in February said they had not found workers for new jobs.. Bill dunkelberg, chief economist of this trade association, said that “Finding skilled workers has become a critical issue for small businesses across the country.”

Carlos Gazitua, president of the restaurant chain Sergio in Florida, he is among those who say he suffers from the problem. “Currently, all my employees work 6 or 7 days a week because we are understaffed”, he said BBC Mundo. “Things have reached a point where when an application comes in, managers jump for joy, but then it turns out that applicants do not show up for the interview,” he added.

Ensures you must complete with 80 employees its current workforce of 400 and that the lack of staff has forced it to occasionally close some of its restaurants or leave them just for home delivery. “We stop earning 20 or 25% of what we could earn because there is a demand that we cannot meet.”

Since the issue arose, professional associations have identified a culprit. In the aftermath of the covid crisis, the government of Joe Biden expanded help for the unemployed and those who qualify are entitled to receive US $ 300 per week, in addition to the benefits already in force in each state.

Dunkelberg believes that “the increase in unemployment benefits prevents some workers from working”.

Katharine G. Abraham, professor of economics at the University of Maryland and commissioner of the United States government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1993 to 2001, believes rather than aid “They played a minor role because everyone knows they won’t last forever. People are not going to turn down a job now and may not find another one later“.

Saru Jayaraman, founder of “Un Sueldo Justo”, an organization which demands better wages for the lowest paid workers, assures that they have “Years of warning the hospitality industry that workers would abandon it if wages were not raised.”

“It is ridiculous to say that the problem is help. Last year we spoke to 240,000 workers who could not benefit from it because in many states they were told that their wages between $ 2 and $ 4 an hour were too low to have access to it. performance, ”Jayaraman explained during a conversation with BBC Mundo.

He is one of the voices calling for an increase in the minimum wage in the United States, a measure Biden has included in his new stimulus package for the economy he is trying to push through Congress. Biden’s goal is to achieve a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour in 2025 and several states are already revising those in force on their territory upwards. The problem of understaffing has a negative impact on the lives of workers, both those who are active and those who are not.

Mary Miranda continues to work. The manager of a clothing store in Sunrise, Florida, regrets that when the business was able to reopen after restrictions due to the pandemic, many of her subordinates were unwilling to join her. “Those of us who remain now have to do all the chores, even the most physical ones. I am always tired and lately I have started to suffer from wrist pain ”.

Carissa Shade is one of those who does not work. A resident of Fletcher, North Carolina, he lost his job in March due to restrictions. “Since then everything has been a nightmare”, insured. In June, they got up, but she had to ask for medical leave to give birth and when she wanted to come home, she found that the company had decided to do without her. Since then, her family has supported herself with her partner’s salary and public assistance to feed her four children.

At 18, she started working as a waitress and this is not the first time that she has felt vulnerable because of her condition as a woman. “In this business you depend on tips and I have often had to learn to deal with situations of over-trusting or harassing clients.” “If they offered me a decent job I would take it, but in the last one they paid me less than $ 4 an hour. I won’t work for less than it costs me to pay someone to take care of my children while I am not there ”.

The economy is not the only factor that makes Carissa Shade prefer not to join the job market. “In the hospitality industry you are still exposed to a lot of viruses,” he said, alluding to a fear that can be shared by many who are currently rejecting jobs in public.

Economist Abraham was “skeptical” of complaints from employers who say they cannot find employees. “We have seen in previous recessions where things start to improve, there is always a period when companies say they are having difficulty hiring ”.

“Probably, they will have to agree to raise wages or hire workers with a profile different from the one they wanted.” Gazitua said he was already doing it. He says he pays for the dishwashers he manages to rent for the kitchens in his restaurants, while he pays $ 19 an hour, whereas before the pandemic, employees in this function generally did not receive no more than 12 dollars.

But many businessmen say the solution will come only when government aid is moderated or eliminated. “The government must encourage people to return to work”said Gazitua, who believes that “the problem is not only a question of money, but also of whether or not people want to serve their community”.

This businessman understands that the difficult months of the pandemic have changed the scale of priorities. “After this period, many people, especially young people, realized that they preferred a job to a job. allow them to have time to be with their family than the one in which they earn a lot of money but require many hours ”.

“There are already restaurants that use robots instead of waiters and I think about it.”

BBC Mundo