INtouch
PO Box 7577, Columbia, SC 29202
AUGUST 2020
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID COLUMBIA, SC PERMIT 168
Businesses Hit Hard by Coronavirus Claw Back Jobs Is your restaurant committed to the Palmetto Priority? Join more than 2,500 restaurants who have already made the commitment to making safety and health a priority. Visit PalmettoPriority.com for more information.
SCRLA Member Spotlight Hard Rock Cafe® Reopens Restaurant Locations Under Newly-Introduced SAFE + SOUND Program Hard Rock’s new SAFE + SOUND program implements the highest level of safety, sanitation, food handling and employee training, following recommendations from national and local health officials. As part of the new protocol, all guests and team members are required to participate in a state-of-the-art, non-intrusive thermal temperature screening process before entering each Hard Rock Cafe location. In addition to the thermal temperature screening process, the “SAFE + SOUND” protocol also incorporates elements of each location’s local, government mandated policies including, but not limited to, the following: • • • • • •
A dedicated ‘Clean Team’ in-restaurant, focusing on regularly sanitizing all high-touch areas, including restrooms, tables, seating, menus and door handles Full sanitization of the location each night Extensive employee training on COVID-19 precautionary measures Hand sanitation stations for guests and team members throughout the restaurant Mandatory facial covering/masks and gloves for all team members Menus utilizing the latest in antibacterial coating, as well as contactless menu options
Tony Iannice, General Manager of the Hard Rock Cafe in Myrtle Beach, is taking the Recommendations for Reopening Restaurants very seriously and has made it his goal to go above and beyond the safety and sanitation standards and protocols. He says the feedback he has received from his guests has been positive. Hard Rock is committed to providing a safe and healthy dining environment for their guests and team members. As part of the program, every Hard Rock Cafe location is required to pass the Safe + Sound 272 point inspection, independently assessed by the NSF (formerly known as the National Sanitation Foundation). To learn more about the program, please visit hardrockhotels.com/safe-and-sound.aspx.
The two industries that suffered the most job loss because of the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns—hospitality and retail—saw the strongest gains the past two months as the U.S. economic engine restarted.
billion tourism industry would be cut in half for 2020.
Still, those industries—and employers more broadly—are far from replacing all the jobs lost since February. And bars, restaurants, hotels and stores are particularly vulnerable to renewed layoffs because a recent spike in coronavirus cases in several states is causing governors to halt or roll back reopening plans.
“We have a long way to go until our state can reclaim its previously historic low unemployment rate, but with the hard working people who make up this state, we know that when opportunity presents itself, they will be eager to rejoin the workforce and help be the necessary catalyst in rebooting our economy,” SC Department of Employment and Workforce Director Dan Ellzey said.
Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 2.1 million in June, the Labor Department said Thursday, accounting for about 40% of the overall gain in payrolls last month. Restaurants and bars were the driver, gaining about 1.5 million jobs for the second straight month. Despite the increases, total employment in food services and bars is down by 3.1 million since February. Total employment in June was down 14.7 million, or 9.6%, from February’s pre-pandemic level. Employers will add jobs in July, but at a slower pace, said Roiana Reid, an economist at Berenberg Capital Markets. The June report reflects the first half of the month “when state reopenings were progressing quite smoothly across the country,” while missing recent closures, she wrote in a note to clients. “We expect a smaller but still strong increase in nonfarm payrolls in July as other states that have flattened the curve continue to progress to new phases of their reopenings” As South Carolina’s unemployement rate increased dramatically to 12.8% in April, it was significantly less than the U.S. rate. The coronavirus wiped out nearly half of the state’s restaurant, tourism and hospitality jobs, with officials estimating overall annual revenue from the $24
Compared to a year ago, state officials said, South Carolina’s economy has lost 193,000 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs.
The Labor Department said the overall unemployment rate is still an undercount because some workers were misclassified as employed, but absent from work, when they should have been counted as unemployed, on temporary layoff. “The degree of misclassification declined considerably in June,” Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner William Beach said. He added that the government is continuing to investigate the error and take steps to address the issue. Had the error, which has occurred since March, not happened, June’s unemployment rate would have been about 1 percentage point higher than reported. A recent report showed the share of unemployed workers on temporary layoff, meaning they expect to return to the same job within six months, remained historically high at 60% in June, but was down from an April peak of 78%. That reflects that some layoffs which appeared temporary early in the spring have become permanent separations. However, it also shows that the number of Americans entering or re-entering the labor market is rising again.
Upcoming ServSafe Manager Classes
Snap-Back! Toolkit
ReOpening Resources foodie.sysco.com/snapback
Charleston - Aug. 10 Greenville/Spartanburg - Aug. 11 Florence - Aug. 12 Bluffton/Hilton Head - Aug. 13
Myrtle Beach - Aug. 17 Charleston - Aug. 26 Columbia - Aug. 27 Charleston - Sept. 10
SCRLA members receive a 20% discount using the code SERV2. To sign up, visit AtlanticFoodSafety.com