Shortage of workers impacting industries

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By Andreas Yilma, Staff Writer

Andy Adames, owner of Senor Pancho’s, is pictured at the restaurant in Prospect on Aug. 3. Adames is facing staff shortages at his restaurants and attributes part of the issue to additional unemployment benefits given because of the COVID-19 pandemic. –ANDREAS YILMA

PROSPECT — Senor Pancho’s owner Andy Adames had to close the doors at his restaurant in town at least half a dozen times this year due to a shortage of workers.

Adames, who also owns Senor Pancho’s in Middlebury, Southbury and Thomaston, said he’s been desperately searching for two qualified line cooks and a manager for his Prospect eatery since the middle of last year. Usually, he said, there’s six workers on the food line in the kitchen but currently he only has four.

Adames, who has had to work on the line when the restaurant was short-handed, attributed part of the problem finding qualified help to people taking advantage of COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits from the federal government.

Currently, the benefit is $300 a week and is scheduled to end on Sept. 6. The benefit previously was $600 a week. Currently, the maximum state unemployment benefit is $667 a week.

“We’re fortunate that you have senior staff members that are willing to work overtime,” said Adames, who started the restaurant franchise with his family 32 years ago. “We know for a fact that people who were working here are not and staying home and taking advantage of an opportunity.”

Adames said the lack of line cooks has a ripple effect across the restaurant, which has 250 seats, including 160 outdoors.

“The problem happens, if you can’t staff the kitchen, you have to hold back on staffing the floor,” Adames said.

The restaurant’s last manager left in February 2020, before the pandemic hit the state. Adames said he was hesitant at the time to hire anyone due to the looming pandemic. He ended up closing the restaurant for three weeks early on in the pandemic before opening for takeout.

“We knew we needed a manager when we went to outside dining because the volume was high, and I still could not really find somebody to come in and manage,” Adames said.

Adames said he’s had candidates for manager and line cook, but they didn’t work out.

“Right now we would prefer to have more people working overtime that are super qualified and I would pay the overtime, than to actually have unqualified people just to cover a position,” Adames said.

Adames said he used to approach the restaurant business with an offensive state of mind, but is now in a defensive mindset.

“I’ve turned away probably 20-plus big functions and big parties because I don’t want to make a fool of myself come that day and I have a kitchen that’s not functioning right,” Adames said.

Adames said about two dozen of his friends in the food industry are facing similar problems with staffing their kitchens. He said they saw a direct effect immediately after the extra unemployment benefits were given. There were people who were willing to stay home, he said.

“I don’t get into the politics of things, but my thing is nothing is going to change until the benefits stop coming from the government,” he said.

Connecticut Restaurant Association Executive Director Scott Dolch could not be reached for comment. Messages left were not returned.

The state is trying to lure the long-term unemployed back to work with a one-time, $1,000 bonus to the first 10,000 rehired workers who can show they have maintained full-time employment for eight consecutive weeks. Gov. Ned Lamont is using $10 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to finance the $10 million cost of the back-to-work incentive program.

A record 294,400 jobs were lost during the partial economic shutdown in March and April 2020 at the outset of the state’s outbreak. Through June, the now fully reopened state economy regained 189,000 of those lost jobs, but employers continue to report they are struggling to find workers to fill job openings.

Connecticut Business and Industry Association Vice President of Public Policy Eric Gjede said labor shortages have been a problem for a long time in the state, but the pandemic made it worse.

The financial services and information technology sectors’ workforce are down 59% and 43%, respectively, in the state as of June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Gjede said many young workers in the IT sector are looking for jobs in other markets, like Boston and Silicon Valley.

Workers in financial services are looking to relocate to less tax burdensome states, he said.

For the most part, he said, workers in the financial services and IT sectors don’t have to work out of an office and can work remotely.

The jobs recovery has slowed down, according to Gjede.

“I think that generally people are starting to come to the conclusion that the recovery is going to be slower than expected,” Gjede said.

The Republican-American contributed to this article.

1 COMMENT

  1. How much does the job pay and where can one apply?

    Is this a full time position where one can take advantage of that extra $1,000 state bonus?
    Where does one sign up for that bonus?