ConsumerAffairs: Businesses continue to struggle to find employees

Please the Keeper icon on your ConsumerAffairs is not a government agency and may be compensated byclick companies displayed.

How browser it works. toolbar to login.

published on 07/20/2022

Home / News / Shopping News

Businesses continue to struggle to find employees For consumers, it means longer wait times and more self-service

Mark Huffman Reporter

Photo (c) RBFried - Getty Images

If you’ve visited restaurants or retail stores lately, you may have seen the signs: “We’re dealing with a staff shortage. Your patience is appreciated.”

Please click the Keeper icon on your browser

Nearly two years after the start of the “Great Resignation,” in which millions of Americans toolbar to login. quit their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses remain understaffed. As a result, consumers might have to wait longer for their pizza or to pick up a prescription.

So where did all of these workers go? In a new report, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls it the “Great Reshuffle.” Many people who quit their jobs have moved into other industries that provide a better work-life balance, better pay, and more flexibility about where they do their work.

“During the pandemic reshuffling, jobs that require in-person attendance and traditionally have lower wages, have had a more difficult time retaining workers,” the Chamber said in its report. “For example, the leisure and hospitality and retail industries have had the highest quit rates since November 2020, consistently above 4.5%.”

The staff shortages have not been limited to those industries. The transportation industry has struggled to fill jobs. Even health care jobs, which usually come with relatively high pay but also a high amount of stress, are going unfilled. According to the Chamber, hotels and restaurants have the highest number of job openings.

The pandemic’s impact The experts we consulted say there is no question that these staff shortages are the direct result of the pandemic. Andrew Duffy, a behavioral economics and labor expert in addition to being the CEO and Co-founder of SparkPlug, says it’s mainly frontline workers who are disappearing.

“The prevailing sentiment in America is that success equals a desk job with a salary, while hourly- or service-based work is the bottom rung of the economic ladder,” Duffy told ConsumerAffairs. “The pandemic exacerbated this overarching belief, with businesses praising their employees as ‘essential’ while simultaneously offering little to no additional financial support or resources. Frontline workers are burned out and angry.”

Mark Kaley of Otter Public Relations, who consults a number of small businesses, agrees that it is a narrow sector of employment that has been affected. He tells us that many employees reevaluated whether they found satisfaction in their work position during the pandemic.

“How employers handled the shutdowns and reopening affected potential employees' perception of the employer,” he said. “These former employees have either moved on to