Policy makers should not ensure a flood of low-wage workers for America’s businesses. Cities and towns are opening back up after their coronavirus-induced shutdowns. Job vacancies have surged to historic highs. Millions of Americans report that they are looking for work. Yet employers are struggling …
Labor Shortage? Great Realignment?
No matter what you call it, hiring is difficult right now and seems to be especially difficult in the food and beverage service industry. Anecdotes abound about understaffed restaurants struggling to hire, workers pivoting from food service to new industries, and new incentives being offered to entice workers. Whether you choose to call it a labor shortage or a great realignment of labor, changes happening in the industry today will reverberate for years to come.
Shortage or great realignment?
What's really happening in the labor market and food service?
Experts weigh in on what’s really going on in the labor market — and what companies can do to attract workers. The DealBook newsletter delves into a single topic or theme every weekend, providing reporting and analysis that offers a better understanding of an important issue in the news. If you …
“You can call out if you’re dead.” — that’s how restaurant owners or managers often describe their sick leave policy, with a wink that says, I’m …
Operators say hiring has become their top problem again, even with nearly 2 million former restaurant workers still out of a job.
Voices Of Industry Workers
What do industry workers have to say about the choice to remain in or depart from the industry?
After eight years in the restaurant industry, Estefanía decided she’d had enough. Last summer, she quit her job at a New American restaurant in Chicago where she had worked as a manager and sommelier since 2017. Estefanía, who asked to be referred to by her first name because she is an undocumented …
Jim Conway started working in restaurants in 1982, making $2.13 an hour, plus tips. And though the world has changed significantly in the nearly 40 years since then, his hourly wage has not. At the Olive Garden outside of Pittsburgh where he worked when the pandemic hit last year, he was making $2.83 …
On rusty skills, loyal customers, and seeing coworkers’ faces for the first time. On June 11, Chicago officially moved to Phase 5 of pandemic …
In this episode sponsored by Flipboard, KJ and I tackle one of the most talked-about issues in the current food and beverage space -- the labor shortage. Hear from a variety of food industry folks about their perspective on the shortage, or what I prefer to call the great realignment, throughout the episode.
Potential Paths Forward
What types of changes or incentives can retain workers and attract new talent to the food and beverage service industry?
The owners of Klavon’s Ice Cream Parlor had hit a wall. For months, the 98-year-old confectionary in Pittsburgh couldn’t find applicants for the open positions it needed to fill ahead of warmer weather and, hopefully, sunnier times for the business after a rough year. The job posting for scoopers — …
This is the third in a three-part series about the restaurant labor shortage. When Delaware Gov. John Carney initially shut down restaurant dining in …
Restaurant staffers and owners say this reckoning was a long time coming. When Emily Blackman was a young server in New York City more than a decade …
COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the restaurant industry, and recovery will take time. Here's what to expect this year. It’s been a year since the coronavirus pandemic upended the U.S. restaurant industry, necessitating innovations in takeout, carry-out cocktails, expanding outdoor dining and contactless …