Chicago restaurant owners say they need more workers to operate at higher capacity. | Stock Photo
Chicago restaurant owners say they need more workers to operate at higher capacity. | Stock Photo
A coalition of restaurant and small business owners urged city and state leaders to help solve a worker shortage crisis and start using pandemic relief funds to incentivize people to return to their jobs.
In a May 13 news conference organized by the Fulton Market Association and the Chicago Restaurants Coalition, a half dozen business owners described the difficulty they’re experiencing as businesses increase capacity but lack adequate staff to serve customers.
“It’s been a very hard year, and now as vaccines are prevalent, and as restaurants are open and moving toward [the] full opening on July 4, businesses and restaurants are having great difficulty getting people back to work,” Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Fulton Market Association, said. “Thousands of Chicagoans are simply not returning to work.”
The issue is multifaceted, Romanelli said.
Schools are not fully reopened for in-person instruction, precluding many parents from returning to work, and extended unemployment benefits are failing to incentivize people to return. Then there is misinformation about vaccines, even as CDC data continues to show they are both safe and effective.
The coalition presented “solutions-oriented” ideas that they hope Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, city alderman, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker will consider: returning children to classrooms full-time by June 1; workers who return to work receive $1,000 bonuses after three months – paid for with $10 million of the $2 billion in federal relief funds the city received in March; and an increase in public service announcements urging people to get vaccinated.
The coalition also supports using pandemic relief funds to help cover child care costs so that parents can return to work.
Jodi Agee, owner of Jefferson Tap and Grille, noted it is time for businesses to return to normal operations but need employees in order to do so. Agee said she had booked many people for job interviews, but most of them are no-shows.
“There are just too many dollars being thrown at people,” Agee said. “The government throwing money at people to stay home, that’s outdated.”
Romanelli noted that when extra unemployment benefits expire in September, there may not be jobs to go back to if businesses are forced to close.
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