Saskatoon restaurants struggle to find staff in post-COVID-19 industry
With COVID-19 restrictions lifted, two Saskatoon restaurants are seeing more customers – but fewer staff.
“We’re trying to get applications in, putting out feelers for jobs and that. It’s really difficult to find employees who have experience,” said Gary Baba, co-owner of Wendel Clark’s Classic Grill and Bar.
Baba said some of his employees found work in other fields during the pandemic and he feels this may have been common across the industry.
“The pandemic put a damper on a lot of stuff and it kind of slowed everything down, and people maybe went a different way and found different jobs.
“I know a couple of our employees, that were senior employees, found different jobs outside of the field of restaurants and bars.”
He feels many former staff might be waiting on government cheques or are just done with the industry.
“I think a lot of it deals with the government keeping the CERB. That went for a long time, the unemployment. People are still probably catching unemployment and it’s really affected everybody,” Baba said.
“A lot of the people that we have talked to have said they are getting out of the business now, they’ve done it for so many years, that’s what I’ve noticed too. They are just going their different ways.”
'BITTERSWEET' REOPENING
Taylor Morrison, owner of Living Sky Café, said difficulties hiring new, experienced staff has been so bad they haven’t been able to get back up and running at full capacity.
“It’s very bittersweet, because we are so thankful to be able to reopen, but we are actually still sitting at the same amount of capacity, because we can't physically go back to what we were,” Morrison said.
Morrison said people looking for a job in the hospitality industry have more choice than ever and hiring new staff has become a game of numbers.
“We’ve been hiring for the past six months. As an example, this past week I phoned 18 people. I had three of them return my phone calls. I had two of them show up, one of them was an hour late,” Morrison said.
Morrison agrees with Baba that government assistance has had a role to play in the slow return to work.
“I understand where people have got a little bit complacent with the fact that sitting on EI is a lot more convenient than showing up to work,” Morrison said.
“By all means I am not knocking them, I think that 100 per cent there are people that need it and I’m 100 per cent for them to be able to have that asset, but at some point all the people who had jobs pre-Covid should be able to go out and get a job again post-Covid.”
Morrison said the timing of the lack of job-seekers with the pandemic finally relenting is just salt in the wound.
“We worked so hard to get through a pandemic that has never happened in a lot of people’s lifetimes. To have it come out the other end and to have peoples reactions and their attitudes be the way they are, it’s really hard,” Morrison said.
“A lot of people are saying ‘support local’, but you have to show up and work then, that’s also a way of supporting. It’s not just coming and eating and dinning, its also going back to work to support the economy.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Pharmacare bill passes in the House of Commons, heads to the Senate
The Liberals' pharmacare bill is headed to the Senate after passing third reading in the House of Commons.
National Bank of Canada seizes Ont. woman’s car by mistake
A university student woke up one morning to find her car had been towed away without warning. She finally got answers - just not the ones she expected.
More Canadians are moving to the U.S. Here's one of the main reasons, according to an immigration expert
Recent data from the U.S. census revealed that more than 126,000 people moved from Canada to the U.S. in 2022. An expert said that one of the main reasons for this move is the cost of living.
MPs 'wittingly' took part in foreign interference: national security committee
Some MPs began 'wittingly assisting' foreign state actors soon after their election, says a report released Monday, including sending confidential information to Indian officials.
Her gut was producing alcohol. Doctors didn't believe her
For two years doctors told her she was an alcoholic. Then they realized her gut was making alcohol from carbohydrates, a rare condition called auto-brewery syndrome.
Bus carrying Quebec tourists crashes in Cuba, leaving 1 dead and 26 injured
One person is dead and 26 were injured after a bus carrying Quebec tourists was involved in a collision in Cuba on Sunday.
Here's how far B.C. drivers must keep from cyclists, pedestrians under new law
A new law protecting cyclists and pedestrians in British Columbia takes effect Monday, establishing minimum distances that drivers must keep from so-called vulnerable road users.
N.L. becomes latest province to eye stricter tobacco regulations
Newfoundland and Labrador has floated an eyebrow-raising trial balloon in a bid to further the public health fight against tobacco and nicotine.
Forest bathing: What it is and why some Alberta doctors recommend it
Many people are familiar with the benefits of being in nature, but forest therapy goes a step further than a simple walk in the woods.