Vaccinations keep climbing, and restaurants are ready to roar back this summer. But eateries from Miami to Martha’s Vineyard to Los Angeles are facing the same problem as the hospitality sector in the UK: not enough staff. The big picture: Millions of bars & restaurants are hiring all at once and, after a deadly pandemic, the jobs of waiters, cooks, and hosts seem more dangerous than they ever have before. All of this is contributing to a nationwide hospitality staff shortage as the US economy opens back up. What we’re hearing: Some employers are saying they can’t compete with unemployment insurance checks and that workers would rather collect benefits than go back to work. But a 2020 study by Yale economists found that unemployment benefits don’t create a dis-incentive for job seekers. By the numbers: The pandemic wiped out 2.5 million restaurant jobs in the US and forced more than 100,000 eateries to shutter. And now the ones that made it through 2020 can’t find staff. - According to census survey data from early April, 37% of small businesses in the hospitality and food sectors say their operating ability was affected by staff availability, compared to 16% for all small businesses.
What’s happening: The hospitality industry was among the hardest hit during the pandemic, and that’s making its recovery even tougher. - “Everybody is reopening at the same time” and that means everybody is hiring at the same time, which makes it harder to find staff, says Alice Cheng, founder of Culinary Agents, a hospitality job search site.
- On top of that, restaurant work — especially customer-facing roles like server and host — is still seen as hazardous. “Some people are still concerned about getting the virus at an in-person job,” says Jed Kolko, chief economist at the jobs site Indeed.
- There’s also a shortage of foreign workers, due to former President Donald Trump’s ban on temporary foreign workers and pandemic travel restrictions. The Trump ban lapsed on March 31st, but employers feel there’s not enough time to fill jobs by the busy summer season.
Silver linings: Service employees have long been treated as disposable workers. Now, with restaurants desperate to hire, the power is finally in the hands of the staff — and that’s a good thing, Cheng says. - Restaurants are already starting to offer referral and retention bonuses to attract talent. And workers can be pickier and seek out more pay or robust health benefits, she says.
What to watch: The latest US COVID-19 relief package includes a $28.6 billion fund to help restaurants get back up and running. The picture in the US is not dissimilar to what we are experiencing here in the UK with foreign staff returning to their native countries and UK born staff taking a career change with more complimentary hours to support a work life balance that they have enjoyed since working from home for the last 12 months. It certainly won’t be easy to just turn the lights back on again and expect everyone to return, and the teams that do will need to be completely re-trained in the steps of service which both suits the needs of the consumer, and the concerns with new regulations of the teams themselves. The risks of falling over under the weight of consumer expectation and pent-up demand are very high so the teams on the front line of operations will need constant support and reassurance to prevent team turnover rates escalating to levels not previously seen in the sector. For the hospitality sector in the US & the UK this will be a “Dunkirk” like turnaround. | 
