Some business owners blame workers for labor shortage

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Many industries experience a tight labor market. Some retail owners seem to blame this on “lazy” workers. While driving in six states on my honeymoon, I noticed many indignant “help wanted” signs. Loading Something is loading.

It’s a tough time to be a hiring manager.

In April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics saw the number of job postings hit a record 9.3 million. In many areas, blue collar industries like retail, restaurants and warehousing need more workers. Today’s tight labor market represents the continuation of a pre-pandemic trend.

In 2019, a war for talent was raging, but the coronavirus appears to have spurred specific trends such as career epiphanies and stopping anger, the impending exodus of working women due to inadequate access to child care and salary increases from giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. The result is a difficult job market for companies, especially small operators.

The tightening labor market is also something I noticed when I should have relaxed. I recently took time off for my wedding and honeymoon. Leaving our home in Indiana, my husband and I drove to upstate New York and Virginia, making forest getaways through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. . We ended up in all kinds of small businesses: antique malls, fast food outlets, big box stores, steakhouses, gas stations, grocery stores, drugstores, and mom-and-pop boutiques. Retailing is one of those beats that you can never really escape.

“Help wanted” signs were everywhere. The rants also appeared sporadically. My husband took pictures of two screeds accusing the American public of collectively “not wanting to work”, one at a hamburger restaurant in New York and the other at a restaurant in Virginia.

We saw this sign at a New York based burger restaurant. Courtesy of Kevin Greenlee

These signs resembled other notices seen in viral social media posts. All seem to attribute the difficulties in hiring individual companies to widespread “laziness”. They also gave rise to a widely talked about retort: ​​”No one wants to work for you.”

We saw this sign at a restaurant in Virginia. Courtesy of Kevin Greenlee

Most other companies were covered with somewhat less passive-aggressive signs touting open positions, even those promising signing bonuses. Either way, it is evident that we are in a labor market that gives workers in lower paid sectors a rare advantage.

Still, the sloth signs bounced around my head as we visited historic Jamestowne on the last day of our trip. Historic Jamestowne is a cultural heritage site in Virginia, marking England’s first permanent settlement in North America. The colony was the product of a joint stock corporation’s attempt to exploit the region’s resources and the starting point for evils that defined the United States, such as Native American slavery and genocide.

Those who learned about it in school may remember the story that the colony almost failed because the settlers were too idle to work. The reality is probably much more complicated. Historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman wrote that the settlers likely suffered from salt poisoning, malnutrition and disease, as well as the psychological trauma of seeing their countrymen die.

American workers have died during the pandemic. American workers have lost loved ones during the pandemic. American workers continue to face a deeply flawed health care system, debt, an untenable lack of child care and a lack of protections in the workplace.

Business owners frustrated with the status quo should ditch the rants and work instead to raise wages and improve working conditions. Owners can follow other companies and attract more interested candidates by giving workers a really interesting opportunity.

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