The Great Resignation is beginning to create even more havoc for thinly staffed restaurant chains trying to rally back from being hammered during the pandemic.
This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that quits rates in the food service industry hit 6.8%, compared to an overall quits rate of 2.9%. Guggenheim analyst Gregory Francfort notes the quits rate for food service is well above the 5% peaks seen in quits in 2006 and 2019, and 4.1% average over the past 20 years.
"Workers continue to leave the retail and restaurant industries amid challenging demands put on existing staff due to labor shortages and other measures, such as mask requirements for customers. With the persistent high quits rate in these industries throughout the pandemic, both will remain constrained due to a lack of available people willing to work in these jobs. That will continue to weigh on overall employment given the size of both industries," opined DataTrek's Jessica Rabe in a research note to clients.
Retail is facing this too. The "Big Quit" started in April and is still being felt. Places which haven't treated their staff very kindly in the past appear to be hardest hit.
What's funny is that through the summer, people attributed the labor shortage to people staying home and collecting govt. money. Now that the funds have ended, they are stumped as to why no one wants to work at some of these crappy jobs.
Wonder if its hitting corporate chain places harder than mom and pop places
Most corporate places have exploitation of their employees down to a science, since they've been chopping benefits & wages for years to make their Wall Street expectations for growth. Most people see the writing on the wall that retail is no longer a good career path. Mom and pop places have less regimentation, but are probably suffering too, because the chains are offering higher wages and don't offer a path for growth.
A local fast food restaurant near me still has no indoor dining because they can't hire enough people. Been that way for over a year.
I’m stumped at how they’re affording to live.
The part-time retail job I work at now lost a lot of their older people when COVID hit. They were given up to 18 months off with their benefits as a leave-of-absence, but many never returned. They'll go out again if we have another bad (according to the health depts. & MSM) COVID or flu winter. As for the rest? I have no idea what they're doing.