The Church Cantina, a Latin pub in South Tacoma, recently wrote, “hiring like everyone else,” with a laughing cat emoji on Instagram, where food-focused feeds have, since April, been drowning in similar calls for servers, dishwashers, hosts and cooks. Intertwined with these pleas for workers are posts about updating — or maintaining — mask requirements as Washington state heads toward its June 30 “reopening” following a year of rules and reduced capacities.
Millions of people remain unemployed, and restaurants operators are doing what they can to attract applicants. Some, like Stence, are offering cash bonuses and higher starting wages; others are restructuring their tipping system to share the pot from front-of-house to back.
So why aren’t they finding the workers they need?
“That’s the $10 million question,” said Jim Vleming, an economist for the state Employment Security Department focused on Pierce County. In Washington, the leisure and hospitality sector gained 8,100 new jobs in April, more than any other. Compared to this time in 2020, the industry has regained more than 62,000 jobs, though statewide unemployment hovers around 6 percent.
Reasons cited in the nationwide hand-wringing over understaffed restaurants include the responsibility of child care keeping parents — especially women — at home, the ongoing risks associated with a very public-facing job, and the reality of an industry known for low wages and little benefits, which affects financial stability as much as emotional and mental well-being. All circumstances have worsened during the pandemic.