Record Labour Shortages in Restaurant Industry

[fluffy]

You keep going back to this "Paying people to stay home" thing when that number is still an unknown.

The idea of TFWs for jobs that nobody else wants is something I'm okay with. If the job can't be filled by locals then the old refrain that they're "taking jobs from Canadians" doesn't hold much water. Plus bringing people in from countries with a markedly lower cost of living works out well for them and the employers. As I understand it the TFW program has been tightened up to keep less-than-scrupulous employers from taking advantage of both the system and the TFWs themselves.

As far as permanent, quality employees, the employers that are able to hang on to them must be doing something right. Time for the rest to stand up and take notes.

[Trixster]

You keep going back to this "Paying people to stay home" thing when that number is still an unknown.

The idea of TFWs for jobs that nobody else wants is something I'm okay with. If the job can't be filled by locals then the old refrain that they're "taking jobs from Canadians" doesn't hold much water. Plus bringing people in from countries with a markedly lower cost of living works out well for them and the employers. As I understand it the TFW program has been tightened up to keep less-than-scrupulous employers from taking advantage of both the system and the TFWs themselves.

As far as permanent, quality employees, the employers that are able to hang on to them must be doing something right. Time for the rest to stand up and take notes.

A big reason why employers want TFW'S is because the Government subsidizes a fair portion of their wages!

[Rejigger]

I doubt we'll find a single all-encompassing reason for the shortage, it's more than likely a "perfect storm" of multiple issues. I wonder if even the boomer generation moving into retirement has has some effect as well.

Yes, a perfect storm, as has been discussed on the last 3 pages...

I have a theory...
Could be that a great deal of those who were working in the restaurant industry were young and attending post secondary, 'putting themselves through school.' And now they've graduated and taken jobs in their chosen field as others have left work for good (which people are doing in droves, according to stats). And perhaps no one has taken up the slack in the restaurant industry - no one has stepped into their shoes because of covid shut-downs/re-openings. I'm referring to people who haven't entered the work force at all.

Because of covid, there are those who haven't yet entered the work force (youth, who may have otherwise started jobs if not for covid), retired or left work for good.

It's a well thought out theory, holds water for the most part, but does not explain where the bulk of the workforce is.
Essential services are suffering the same fate, impossible to fill positions voided by those who left, for whatever reason, or retired.... [snip]...

It's a well thought out theory, holds water for the most part, but does not explain where the bulk of the workforce is. The restaurant industry is not the only ones facing labour shortages and it is beginning to show in cost increases in goods and services and shortages of same.

The she-cession...

This isn't a secret, they've been talking about this in the news for weeks, if not months. Fewer people entering the workforce, more people leaving the workforce for good (retiring, for eg.), the "she-cession" (which is expected to be temporary for the most part). I think, as is the case with this thread, you just haven't been paying attention to what people are talking about...?
~

[the truth]

You keep going back to this "Paying people to stay home" thing when that number is still an unknown.

The idea of TFWs for jobs that nobody else wants is something I'm okay with. If the job can't be filled by locals then the old refrain that they're "taking jobs from Canadians" doesn't hold much water. Plus bringing people in from countries with a markedly lower cost of living works out well for them and the employers. As I understand it the TFW program has been tightened up to keep less-than-scrupulous employers from taking advantage of both the system and the TFWs themselves.

As far as permanent, quality employees, the employers that are able to hang on to them must be doing something right. Time for the rest to stand up and take notes.

case closed https://globalnews.ca/news/7545061/kelo ... n-workers/ https://globalnews.ca/video/4917792/tem ... y-benefits

[Rejigger]

You keep going back to this "Paying people to stay home" thing when that number is still an unknown.

Is it still unknown, though? Really?

So information for a one year period (Mar'20 thru Mar'21) isn't enough to extrapolate from? And the fact that Trudeau extended the CRB thru September, then again thru October (and who knows when in another months' time) is no indication to you that people continue to USE the CRB? Who's using it? You think the stats that were already posted have somehow turned around? That restaurant workers, those who used it the most over a one-year period, suddenly decided to get off of the CRB? That current job openings and news reports aren't enough to base a hypothesis on?

Honestly, I don't know if you are intentionally being obtuse, or if you just don't want to read the information that's right before your eyes; on the internet with a few mouse clicks, on the morning, afternoon and evening news.

Have you entertained the thought that maybe you're only interested in CONFIRMATION BIAS?

~

[alanjh595]

Kelowna has way too many eateries, it's been that way for years. It's time that the market decide what/who are the best and let the rest fold.

[fluffy]

Is it still unknown, though? Really?

So information for a one year period (Mar'20 thru Mar'21) isn't enough to extrapolate from?

That period covers the period hit hardest by pandemic lockdowns so your information is going to be skewed. Numbers for the last six months will give you a more accurate picture, but I haveen't found any place those numbers are publicized. The main question through this whole thread is how many former restaurant employees are sitting at home collecting gov't benefits now.

[fluffy]

case closed

What case is that? BC passed the Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act to deal with just the type of employers in your links. Alberta significantly limited the amount of TFWs allowed in the province. I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make here.

[fluffy]

Is it still unknown, though? Really?

So information for a one year period (Mar'20 thru Mar'21) isn't enough to extrapolate from?

That period covers the period hit hardest by pandemic lockdowns so your information is going to be skewed. Numbers for the last six months will give you a more accurate picture, but I haveen't found any place those numbers are publicized. The main question through this whole thread is how many former restaurant employees are sitting at home collecting gov't benefits now.

Honestly, I don't know if you are intentionally being obtuse, or if you just don't want to read the information that's right before your eyes; on the internet with a few mouse clicks, on the morning, afternoon and evening news.

I can read as well as the next person, your conclusions are a pretty big leap of logic. A lot has happened since reopening started, explanations offered in a whole bunch of media articles gives a lot of different explanations. Sure, sitting at home on the dole is one of them but it's only one, and as yet there is no proof one way or the other.

[Rejigger]

I am sensitive to the prejudice that exists, that there are many who tend to look down their noses at people the see as inferior based on nothing more than the job they hold. It permeates a lot of the posts in this thread.

So is it not true that women love a man who can cook? I hear it from time to time on the telly and never had a reason to doubt it.
~

[Rejigger]

A lot has happened since reopening started, explanations offered in a whole bunch of media articles gives a lot of different explanations. Sure, sitting at home on the dole is one of them but it's only one, and as yet there is no proof one way or the other.

I suspect the data is split between the CRB and EI because there was a switch from CRB over to EI for all who qualified. Meaning that if someone who was unemployed qualified for EI, then they HAD TO apply for it as they were not allowed to be on the CRB.

The data may be misleading if only one half of this equation is looked at. Maybe this is making it difficult for the average person to find such info.
~

[Babba_not_Gump]

I commented earlier on here about my experiences with businesses looking for help. At that time it was banks and insurance offices.

A warehouse that I pass most days had a sign out that I had never seen in twenty years, "job fair", as did a mechanical shop, looking for welders and heavy duty mechanics.

Now I just experienced shortages in the airline industry.
A flight we were on out of Kamloops was delayed almost 3 hours due to no available flight crew.
Later that day we sat in a plane on the tarmac in Montreal for 50 minutes. No available ground crew.
It seems this is common throughout the airline industry, brought on by staff laid off and not brought back on time.

It makes for very frustrating travel.

[nucksRnum1]

The storm has been brewing for many years and now it's time for rapture. The pandemic pushed restaurant employees to the brink and many found other employment opportunities. Employers better pull up there boot straps cause their in for the long haul of staffing shortages.

When Alberta had staffing shortages, the result was an increase in Temporary Foreign Workers, and this practice went on for years, until things changed during the pandemic (as with all things). Go to any Timmies in Calgary, for example, and it's mostly Filipino staff. A lot of restaurant kitchen workers are Mexican. Not unlike all the Mexican fruit pickers we have here.

Hypocritically, the Federal government is paying people to stay home while AT THE SAME TIME limiting the number of TFW that can be brought-in so as to fill job openings with Canadians. Huh. How long until the Federal government realizes that Canadians won't accept these jobs, and economies/GDP productivity suffers? Then are we back to bringing in TFW for all industries?

There's no shortage of Mexican fruit pickers shopping at Superstore these days. We all know why.

Click your heels together three times while chanting, "Hard work, crap hours, low wages" and *bam!* Temporary Foreign Workers will arrive.

~

The TFW's is a great point. Even in the construction industry TFW's were plenty. The industry said there was a "shortage" of skilled trades. When the reality was that it had to be worth it for a skilled tradesman wage - and otherwise to work 20 in and 10 out. The reality is you had middlemen blockers who saw the work and then advertised it to subs. In the end, you had middlemen that would be taking half the travel from big oil. Or passing off the electronics the subs had to the prime and paying a pittance. Or billing the subs truck for peanuts and walking away with the rest. There was a scam that ended up happening and big oil knew it. Big oil used these middlemen to bring down union workers and wages. And then in the end the middlemen became expendable as well. Why pay someone else to take a cut of a subs extras when you could phase out jobs and perks. And then just hire a skeleton crew and use a slew of TFW's.

[jcdenton]

its almost like government deeming people "non-essential" while closing their businesses made people realize that the government doesn't give a about you

[motokelowna1]

Why because they cannot get workers. How pitiful it is that has to happen when money is tight for many. OR is it . Has CERB made people so rich they need not work anymore. Have we made the country just a lazy bunch of Govt sponges? Sad ...