During the pandemic, tons of people took the opportunity to change their routine—and also their career.
Particularly in the hospitality industry, many businesses had to shut down or let go of employees. And now, almost three years since that first started happening, the sector is still facing problems: 2 million hospitality and leisure jobs remain open, The Washington Post reported on Friday. And while many industries have recovered, leisure and hospitality is still 500,000 employees short of its 2020 levels.
“There’s this reshuffling going on that is explaining why lots of industries can’t find workers,” Betsey Stevenson, an economics professor at the University of Michigan and a former Labor Department chief economist, told the Post. “Their workers have left to go somewhere else.”
While the consequences of that are industry-wide, the effects are also hitting businesses on an individual level. One of my colleagues has heard from chefs and restaurateurs in New York City who have had to shorten their workweeks to fewer than seven days, citing labor shortages. Others are changing their business practices to attract new employees.