The country as a whole isn’t adding as many jobs each month as it used to.
Workforce experts call it a “cool down,” but Florida often does its own thing.
Job growth is still strong, especially in Palm Beach County, where there are more people looking for work than there are jobs.
Every day, more and more people walk through the doors of many companies. Behind the bar, however, there is less help.
Melanie Hackman, the owner of Aioli West Palm Beach, said, “My husband and I are working like 17 to 18-hour days just to make it work until we can find the right people to train and join our team.”
She said that they still don’t have as many people working for them as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hackman said, “People who used to work for us but left to do other things are starting to come back, but it’s still very hard.”
This is a problem for more than just restaurants.
Every year, the hospitality and leisure business adds the most jobs in Palm Beach County.
Roger Amidon, the general manager of the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort and Spa, said that it is hard to find people to fill these jobs.
“We will go after high schools. “We’re going to colleges to look for workers,” Amidon said.
Amidon said that the resort has lost 17% of its employees since the pandemic started, but that they have been full every week this spring.
Education and health care services are growing steadily in the area of Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties. But just because the number of people has gone up doesn’t mean that the number of people working has gone up.
“I would say there is a challenge in the tri-county area,” said Dawn Riccardi of CareerSource Research Coast. “Not only are there not enough workers, but there are also not enough talented workers.”
Employers have to think outside the box in order to find and keep skilled workers.
