ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — As the nation faces labor shortages, the hospitality and food service industry is struggling the most.
Almost 8 million employees were either laid off or furloughed because of the pandemic and some have decided to leave for good.
5 On Your Side got an inside look at the restaurant scene in St. Louis County to find out why the industry has taken such a big hit and how places in the St. Louis area are working around the shortage.
“I just knew, like, I can't do this anymore. This isn't for me," said Jessica Silas, a former restaurant employee.
Jessica was laid off from her job as a waitress when the pandemic started.
After five months of searching for work and living off of unemployment, she went back to work in a restaurant.
“I needed to pay my bills, you know I had to pay my bills," said Jessica.
But, that was short-lived. Two weeks back at work and she decided the job just wasn’t worth the struggle, then left the industry for good.
“There was no security there, and there was no respect there. There was no health there. There was no health insurance. There was no paid time off. There was nothing but hard work,” Jessica explained.
A survey by One Fair Wage found 53% of all restaurant workers say they’ve considered leaving their job during the pandemic.
Keeping employees is tough, finding new ones is even harder.
"We will probably reach out any given week to 20 to 40 applicants. We'll typically hear back from usually about 20% of them," said Andrew Viragh, owner of Sonder Hospitality and a restaurant recruiter and advisor.
Restaurants in St. Louis County are feeling that firsthand.
One family-owned BBQ restaurant in Eureka has been hiring since March of 2020.
The owner of Super Smokers, Jeff Fitter, says it’s been all hands on deck to try and make it work.
“The strategy right now is: survive,” he said.
The restaurant has another location in Afton and a food truck. Workers at Super Smokers BBQ have been doing their job… and then some.
“Some days you come in and work the pit, then you go up and take orders and then you’re the manager until you close," said Jeff. "It becomes everybody’s doing everything they can to try and keep the doors open. I’d say we probably spend about 10 hours a week just figuring out how we’re going to function that next week.”
So, what needs to change to improve the restaurant industry and attract new workers?
“What has typically lacked in our industry is the stability around work-life balance, family priorities, mental health, which is a huge deficit in our industry," said Viragh. "And ultimately, the people that were leaving were really just looking to fill those deficits that our industry had."
Jessica tells us she knows a few workers in the restaurant industry who say they’ve experienced harsher treatment from customers during the pandemic.
“I can only imagine what people still in the industry are going through, because the more people are frustrated the worse service workers are treated,” said Jessica.
And we can all help a little bit everyday. Jeff from Super Smokers says he corrects customers who aren’t respectful of his employees.
“If people just started listening to one another and would just be a little nicer. I think we’ll see a big change,” said Jeff.