Struggling to find workers, many Oxford restaurants are running short-staffed, sometimes even cutting their hours of operation.
“We haven’t had someone apply in over a month for a front-of-house position,” said Jill Mastranjelli, general manager at Moe’s Original BBQ. “Typically we need 10 or more employees to run a shift smoothly — right now we’re only working with four.”
Mastranjelli also says that Moe’s had to change certain operations for the restaurant to run more smoothly.
“We were having to cut labor way down, meaning we were only open when people were ordering food,” Mastrangeli said. “We definitely need more front-of-house and kitchen staff, and we really need people to apply.”
Rosati’s, one of Oxford’s newest restaurants, is experiencing similar difficulty.
“People want their pizza delivered, but we can’t do that right now because of difficulties with hiring people,” said Tyler Whitaker, Rosati’s Pizza general manager. “We’ve had to stop delivering because we don’t have any pizza drivers.”
Whitaker said that managers are having to learn how to adapt to a lack of employees.
“We just opened in July, so it’s really hard for us to gauge what a normal staffing day even looks like,” said Whitaker. “We’re having to get by with the limited staff that we have.”
Oxford’s labor shortage mirrors that of the entire country.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Oct. 22 that Americans are quitting jobs faster than people are applying — 4.3 million American workers quit their jobs in August, up from 4 million in July, and 900,000 of them quit jobs at restaurants, bars and hotels.
The hospitality industry in particular is experiencing higher voluntary quitting rates. As of August, quitting rates released by the Bureau show 21-year record highs of 6.8%, while professional businesses, manufacturing plants and health care settings reported quitting rates ranging from 2.7-3.4%. Restaurant and bar quitting rates have not exceeded 6% since before 2000.
According to the jobs report, open job listings have increased 62% since last year, while hiring has remained slow with 10.4 million open positions available in August.
As of August, Lafayette county’s unemployment rate is 4.8%, which is down from 5.7% during this time last year.
Nick Bunker, an economist at the jobsite “Indeed,” told the “Washington Post” that people are finding new opportunities in other industries.
“This really elevated rate of people quitting their job is a sign that workers have lots of confidence and they have relatively stronger bargaining positions than they’ve had in the past,” Bunker said. “There’s lots of demand, and people are seizing that opportunity and quitting their job.”
Starbucks on Jackson Avenue temporarily closed their store due to management issues, a shortage of employees and a lack of menu items.
“It was pretty bad, but we’re hoping that we’ve got everything back under control,” said supervisor Kimmy Howell. “We’re still hiring for several positions and we even raised our company-wide minimum wage from $10 per hour to $12.”
The Starbucks location has since reopened and is operating back at normal hours.
In addition to raising the company’s minimum wage, Starbucks employees nationwide are unionizing as “Starbucks Workers United,” and are demanding benefits like seniority pay, adequate staffing and credit card tips.
According to a “Forbes” article, employees at a Starbucks location in Buffalo, New York, say the Starbucks Workers United’s main goal is to make workers feel more valued and appreciated.
As Casey Moore, a Starbucks barista in Buffalo, said, “We just want a seat at the table.”
