Bagel shop struggles to find workers
Low unemployment, record high job vacancy rates create challenge for B.C. businesses
A longtime Vancouver bagel shop is temporarily closing because its owner can’t find enough workers.
Solly’s Bagelry on West Broadway has been operating on reduced hours for months, but has now been forced to shut for a few weeks to deal with what Leah Markovitch said was a crisis facing Vancouver.
“You cannot build a city like a deck of cards and not have a foundation,” said Markovitch Tuesday, referring to the shortage of entry-level workers facing restaurants, food service and retail stores in the city.
“What I’m seeing are workers who do not have transportation to get to work in the early hours. I can’t get a worker to start at 6 a.m. on the weekends which are our busiest days.”
With unemployment at a low and job vacancy rates in B.C. at record highs, Markovitch has been struggling to fill essential but low-skilled positions such as front-counter staff and line cooks.
Typically the three stores would have 25 to 30 such staff; nowadays they have less than 10.
“We are past skeleton,” said Markovitch, indicating there may be shortened hours or temporary closures at the two other Solly’s on Main Street and Yukon Street.
Solly’s, which has been in business for 25 years, has weathered recessions and dietary fads.
The hiring crunch, however, has hit them hard.
Markovitch has now hired an outside recruiter to help her fill the jobs.
Solly’s starting salary is minimum wage during training. After the training period, usually one or two weeks, the pay is bumped up to $14 to $15 per hour plus tips.
Critics, however, question whether the labour shortage is the only reason Markovitch is struggling to find workers. In online reviews and social media, some customers and former employees complained of questionable treatment of staff by the owner.
Zac Vescera, who worked at Solly’s Main Street store for about a year around 2014, said he wasn’t surprised to hear the business couldn’t find or retain workers.
He described an “inhospitable” work environment, where workers were chewed out for minor errors.
He also said staff got anxious when Markovitch came to visit because she could be “loud and brash and verbally abusive.”
“The sum of it is that people working there didn’t have a good time and the word has spread, and people don’t want to work at Solly’s anymore,” said Vescera, who eventually left to work at another retail store.
Markovitch does not remember Vescera but defended herself against the online criticism, saying she has many longtime employees who consider her a tough but fair employer.
She said the workplace is also a two-way street, and that she has been burned many times by flaky employees who don’t show up to work or who come “with attitude.”
“I’ve been a good, fair boss but I don’t take a lot of s---t,” she said. “The problem is I call it what it is. But those who are committed will get a lot of pats on the back from me.”
According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s June 2018 Help Wanted report, B.C. has the highest job vacancy rate in the country at 3.8 per cent, which translates to 68,000 jobs staying unfilled for at least four months.
Richard Truscott, CFIB’s vice-president for B.C. and Alberta, said that entry-level jobs are becoming more difficult and expensive to fill.
However, new CFIB figures to be released on Thursday will show a slight improvement in the job vacancy rate in B.C., due mostly to a softening economy in a still-tight labour market, said Truscott.
In such a competitive market, employers have to find more creative ways to hire and retain staff, such as offering more flexible working schedules, more perks or a day-off on their birthdays.
“They are trying,” said Truscott. “But there’s only so much they can give without getting squeezed into oblivion.”