Businesses scramble as job openings go unfilled

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Owners say that some would be worNers are worried about catching &O9,' 1 or prefer to live off unemployment benefits that are significantly higher amid the pandemic. &hild care is another issue — parents aren’t able to worN when they need to tend to or home school their children. )or some people, a com bination of factors go into their decision not to seeN worN.

:hen 6teve .latt and %randon /app set up inter views for their restaurant and food trucN business, they’re lucNy if one out of 10 or 1 applicants comes in.“7he

people who do show up, all assume their unemployment is running out,” says .latt, whose busi ness, %raised in the 6outh, is located in -ohns ,sland, 6outh &arolina. 7he max imum weeNly unemploy ment benefits in the state are including 00 in federal coronavirus relief payments in some states, maximum unemployment is over 00 a weeN.

.latt and /app need 0 people to run the business well but have only five staff ers. )ormer chefs, the own ers and their wives are worN ing in the Nitchen and on the trucN to Neep things running. .latt and /app recently de cided to curtail their 6unday hours and close 0ondays to give everyone a breaN.

“7he hit to the bottom line will be noticeable, but it’s not worth burning out the few awesome people we do have worNing for us,” .latt says.

%usinesses of all si]es are struggling with hiring even with millions of Amer icans unemployed and as increasing numbers of peo ple get vaccinated and looN forward to a more normal life. A &ensus survey taNen in late 0arch shows that . million didn’t seeN worN be cause they had to care for a child, and .1 million said they feared contracting or spreading the virus.

%ut smaller companies that often can’t offer pay and benefits as generous as larg er companies have a tougher time.

“A shortage of talent is nothing new for small busi nesses, but the circumstanc es surrounding this shortage are entirely different,” says -ill &hapman, a consultant with ,nsperity, a human re sources provider.

7he 1ational )ederation of ,ndependent %usiness found in a 0arch survey of its own members that

had Mob openings they couldn’t fill. Owners cited higher unemployment ben efits as one factor. And a study released last month by the 1ational %ureau of (conomic Research found that a 10 increase in un employment benefits during the pandemic led to a . drop in Mob applications.

“Unemployment benefits allow worNers to be able to wait longer before they taNe a Mob, which can maNe hiring harder,” said ,oana 0arinescu, a University of 3ennsylvania professor who co authored the study.

&ompanies whose worN is done inside homes — including plumbers, con tractors and pest control businesses — find many prospective hires are afraid of contracting the virus on a Mob. 0eanwhile, demand for their services is up because there’s more wear and tear on houses and apartments as people spend more time at home.

At -aNe Romano’s Ot tawa, Ontario, plumbing business, Mob candidates are gravitating toward commer cial plumbing rather than having to visit five to 10 homes a day. (ven when Romano finds a good pros pect for his company, -ohn the 3lumber, he’s often dis appointed.

“:e had a really good applicant, who , found on )acebooN. +e agreed to come onboard, everything was looNing good. , was ex cited, he was excited. 7hen, bam +e changed his mind,” says Romano, who’s looN ing for two licensed plumb ers to add to his current staff of 10.