New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Companies continue to find it hard work to find employees
Connecticut so far has recovered 67.2 percent of the roughly 292,000 jobs that were lost as result of pandemic-related closings and crowd restrictions, according to the most recent state Department of Labor data.
Now, employers, economists and business leaders are differing over the reasons why the state hasn’t seen more job growth as life has slowly begin returning to normal.
Some blame the federal government’s supplemental unemployment payments, which expired this weekend in Connecticut. Other point to employee concerns about people getting sick from the surge in the delta variant of COVID-19.
Indeed.com’s Hiring Lab is reporting that as of Aug. 20, the number of job postings from Connecticut companies was up 39.3 percent compared to Feb. 1, 2020. The state’s increase in job postings is slightly higher than the national average of 37.7 percent, according to company officials.
Bill Purcell, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce in Shelton, said “things are getting stronger (in terms of hiring).
“We’re starting to eat away at that number,” he said of the job losses amid the pandemic.
A ‘more complicated proposition’
Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said looking for work in the age of COVID-19 “has become a more complicated proposition.”
“When people go back to work these days, they have to ask themselves not only ‘what kind of a financial risk am I getting into,’ but ‘what sort of physical risk am I taking?’” Klepper-Smith said. “Positions that don’t interact with the public, people are more likely to apply for those jobs.”
He said fundamentals needed for continued economic recovery “have improved, but the delta variant (of COVID-19) has injected more uncertainty” into the equation.
“The labor markets are still encountering aftershocks,” KlepperSmith said. “There are so many intangibles, it makes it hard to predict when the economy will achieve full recovery (from pandemic-related job losses).”
Some employers maintain that supplemental unemployment payments from the federal government have provided a disincentive for unemployed Connecticut residents to return to the job market.
Don’t tell that to Joanne Civitello of North Branford.
Civitello works as a receptionist at Christopher’s Salon in Guilford. But once Gov. Ned Lamont allowed hair salons and barbershops to reopen last year, Civitello admits she was “afraid to come back to work.”
“I think most people want to work, but they are afraid,” she said. “I go back and forth all the time and not because of the people who work here. But if I go into the Stop &
Shop, I wear a mask because I don’t know that other people are as concerned about safety or are being lazy.”
Because employers are continuing to encounter difficulties in finding enough people to operate their businesses at pre-pandemic levels, they are forced to make accommodations. Some reduce hours of operation, while other pay existing workers overtime and have them work longer hours.
“People who are working are overworked and tired,” KlepperSmith said.
Restaurants change to stay afloat
Kelly Christopher is the sole proprietor of a Dairy Queen on Whitney Avenue in North Haven near the busy Dixwell Avenue intersection.
Christopher is operating the business as a drive-thru operation only.
“I’ve never seen it this bad,” he said. “These past two years have been awful. In order to operate my front counter, I need 6 or 7 people on a shift; I need fewer people when I only operate the drive-through.”
Christopher said the pandemic exacerbated what already was a difficult labor market.
“(At one point earlier this year) I had 24 people on my payroll and there was nobody available to work certain shifts,” he said. “And the applicants that come in don’t want to work nights and weekends, even though I’m paying $13 an hour.”
It’s not just fast-food restaurants that are having difficulty finding workers.
Viron Rondos is the owner of the full-service Cheshire restaurant Viron Rondo Osteria. He said the Highland Avenue restaurant “had a lot of issues hiring this summer.”
“My core group of employee has been working overtime, sometimes 60 to 80 hours a week to keep things going,” he said. “It’s gotten to the point that there are some nights we have to put a cap on the number of reservations we take. We really need additional people, anywhere from one to five per shift; I could easily use another 20 to 30 people.”
Rondos said the supplemental unemployment is a factor, but so is a paradigm shift in the hospitality industry’s workforce.
“I think the restaurant industry has lost a lot of people who have moved on to other jobs,” he said.
Looming on the horizon is the traditional increase in demand for seasonal workers to cover the holiday shopping season. The U.S. Postal Service already has begun job fairs to attract seasonal workers.
Immediate positions available include city carrier assistant $18.51 per hour, mail processing clerk with a bi-weekly pay rate of $18.67 per hour and mail handler assistant at $16.87 per hour.
Individuals hired for the seasonal jobs could see the positions develop into permanent jobs wtth the USPS, said Amy Gibbs, a regional spokeswoman for the agency. Applicants must be available to work weekends and holidays, according to Gibbs.
“From January 2021 through January 2022, we expect to hire approximately 100,000 employees nationwide,” Gibbs said, adding she was uncertain how many people the USPS is looking to hire in Connecticut. “This number covers normal attrition and our peak holiday season. We plan to hire more than 40,000 employees for peak season.”