Article needs a [2021] tag and isn’t of much benefit when read today since the pandemic was still in full force with significant uncertainty if people could eve

Article needs a [2021] tag and isn’t of much benefit when read today since the pandemic was still in full force with significant uncertainty if people could even return to work or if “the next wave” was around the corner to lock us all back down. This author briskly informs me that, no, there isn’t a labor shortage, I “just need to pay more” but later talks up the merits of unemployment benefits that are above the AVERAGE wages of hospitality and leisure jobs (he phrased it negatively/inversely). So yes there is a labor shortage because the government is paying people more money to not participate in employment, and has also restricted foreign work visas. There are good reasons for actions taken back in 2021, but there absolutely was (and continues to be) a shortage of people willing to do what they did the year before. That’s ok. But it is a shortage. The article also mentions someone who left cooking to become a painter because he got tired of being laid off. I thought that was funny- ask painters in 2008 how things went. Thinking about it, cooking is a job that I pay for (as a customer/diner) in a single transaction. I receive a meal, I pay in cash or maybe 30 day finance and that transaction for effort is no longer fungible. It’s over and done. Painting and construction trades in general, on the other hand, are paid for based on 30 yr financing. It is MUCH easier to commit to pay my painter double what he made 2 yrs ago than my cook, because I get 30 yrs typical to figure out the ROI through the rising tides of inflation. As a diner, $25 is just too much for a breakfast plate consumed today and gone tomorrow, so my diner’s proprietor can’t raise menu prices, can’t automate away cooking, can’t afford staff. It’s an interesting conundrum that I don’t see a solution for, and makes me think that small diners in many markets just aren’t really feasible any more, along with many many other silos of customer expectation and business ventures that were reliant on low skill low wage labor.