Restaurants across Mississippi are short-staffed, and business owners are having difficulty hiring new employees. When the coronavirus pandemic began, many businesses were required to close dining areas due to coronavirus restrictions by local or state governments. Some small business owners chose to end day-to-day operations until they could safely reopen their building. Statewide, unemployment rose to 15% in April of 2020, and during the peak of transmission this summer it rose to 7%.
But after doors reopened, many workers have been demanding higher pay and benefits in the service industry, which often pays at or below minimum wage. Governor Tate Reeves chose to end the state’s federal unemployment benefits this summer to push Mississippians back into the workforce. But Pat Fontaine with the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association says it remains a very competitive job market for businesses seeking employees.
“Looking at the wages, looking at benefits packages, ways to get them back. Very competitive wages being offered, in some instances, signing bonuses, 90-day bonuses, health insurance, retirement benefits, paid vacation. Efforts are being made to attract them back,” says Fontaine.
But Fontaine says these incentives are not enough to get the workforce back into the hospitality industry. Steven O’Neil owns the Manship and Aplos, two restaurants in Jackson. He says his larger restaurant is now offering higher wages and benefits, but he says if two workers leave, only one new hire may be ready to take their place.
O’Neil says “That makes it extremely difficult to maintain the high quality of service that we consider our standard. If people call out or decide not to show up for work that day it puts us behind and people see empty tables or different things happening. Or we try to use those tables so that we don’t have empty tables, but then we’re spread thin and we can’t give everybody the service that they deserve.”
O’Neil says this not only puts strain on the business but adds to the stress of his workers.
“They’re doing well, but they’re all tired because they’re working extra shifts to cover for lack of staff and things like that,” says O’Neil. “So it spreads your staff thin when they’re having to cover one or two or three extra shifts a week just because we don’t have a person to work those shifts.”
And experts say this worker shortage could continue for months to come.
