Businesses scramble for help as job openings go unfilled

NEW YORK (AP) — It looks like something to celebrate: small businesses posting “Help Wanted” signs as the economy edges toward normalcy. Instead, businesses are having trouble filling the jobs, which in turn hurts their ability to keep up with demand for their products or services.

Owners say that some would-be workers are worried about catching COVID-19 or prefer to live off unemployment benefits that are significantly higher amid the pandemic. Child care is another issue — parents aren’t able to work when they need to tend to or home-school their children. For some people, a combination of factors go into their decision not to seek work.

When Steve Klatt and Brandon Lapp set up interviews for their restaurant and food truck business, they’re lucky if one out of 10 or 15 applicants comes in.

“The people who do show up, all assume their unemployment is running out,” says Klatt, whose business, Braised in the South, is located in Johns Island, South Carolina. The maximum weekly unemployment benefits in the state are $626 including $300 in federal coronavirus relief payments; in some states, maximum unemployment is over $700 a week.

Klatt and Lapp need 20 people to run the business well but have only five staffers. Former chefs, the owners and their wives are working in the kitchen and on the truck to keep things running. Klatt and Lapp recently decided to curtail their Sunday hours and close Mondays to give everyone a break.

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

Businesses of all sizes are struggling with hiring even with millions of Americans unemployed and as increasing numbers of people get vaccinated and look forward to a more normal life. A Census survey taken in late March shows that 6.3 million didn’t seek work because they had to care for a child, and 4.1 million said they feared contracting or spreading the virus.

But smaller companies that often can’t offer pay and benefits as generous as larger companies have a tougher time.

The National Federation of Independent Business found in a March survey of its own members that 42% had job openings they couldn’t fill. Owners cited higher unemployment benefits as one factor. And a study released last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that a 10% increase in unemployment benefits during the pandemic led to a 3.6% drop in job applications.

“Unemployment benefits allow workers to be able to wait longer before they take a job, which can make hiring harder,” said Ioana Marinescu, a University of Pennsylvania professor who co-authored the study.

Companies whose work is done inside homes — including plumbers, contractors and pest control businesses — find many prospective hires are afraid of contracting the virus on a job. Meanwhile, 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 Jake Romano’s Ottawa, Ontario, plumbing business, job candidates are gravitating toward commercial plumbing rather than having to visit five to 10 homes a day. Even when Romano finds a good prospect for his company, John the Plumber, he’s often disappointed.

“We had a really good applicant, who I found on Facebook. He agreed to come onboard, everything was looking good. I was excited, he was excited. Then, bam! He changed his mind,” says Romano, who’s looking for two licensed plumbers to add to his current staff of 10.

Economist Joe Brusuelas says child care is another issue that may extend owners’ struggles to find workers.

“Until the schools are reopened and avenues of child care normalized, small firms in general, as well as food, beverage, leisure and hospitality, in particular, are going to face staffing challenges until later this fall at the earliest,” says Brusuelas, chief economist with the consulting firm RSM.

Jillian Melton was laid off from a Seasons 52 restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, last spring when the pandemic shut the restaurant down. Melton, who had worked at the restaurant for seven years, can’t work a regular schedule; she has three children at home from school and she’s caring for her 93-year-old grandmother. Babysitters and nurses are in short supply.

Melton says employers need to understand that many workers have compromised immune systems or limited availability because schools and day care centers are closed.

Some people, upended by the pandemic, are just looking for new lines of work, she says.

Child care is one reason why the pool of available workers has shrunk dramatically at Let Mommy Sleep, which hires nurses and health aides to provide in-home care for babies and give new mothers a respite.

Stern also is being hamstrung by concerns about the virus. “We can’t hire candidates with second jobs where exposure might happen, and honestly, a lot of candidates don’t want to work in a closed environment where we know transmission happens,” Stern says.