83% Of Restaurants Still Can't Find Enough Workers, Up 3%

TREND TRACKER | DATA INSIGHTS | LABOR ISSUES: Boston, MA, May 11, 2022 -- While overall challenges finding the right employees have improved by 2% over February, still 63% of all small business employers can't find the help they need, after a year of an ongoing labor shortage.

Drilling into the most recent data on key sectors and demographic groups, the picture is even more disturbing. 

Hiring issues have worsened again for key sectors, including restaurants, travel/lodging, event management, construction, and the automotive industry. Plus, minority business owners, as well as veterans, are experiencing elevated staffing problems. 

Alignable's May Labor Shortage Report shows that 83% of small restaurants still can't fill their job openings, up 3% from February and up 13% from December, when the labor shortage seemed as if it was improving. 

Meanwhile, 81% of minority-owned businesses are in the same predicament, and that figure is an alarming 23% higher than what it was in February. 

These findings are based on responses from more than 8,700 respondents in the two polls: most recently, 2,428 small business owners surveyed from 4/7/22 to 5/10/22; and 6,286 poll-takers from 2/15/22 to 4/1/22.

Restaurants & Other Sectors: Here We Go AGAIN

Industry rankings on May 2022's Alignable Labor Shortage Poll


While restaurants have been in the center of the labor shortage issue since this time last year, hiring challenges also abound for many other industries that suffered greatly during the first year of COVID. 

Since then, they've battled other issues compounding their initial COVID struggles -- record-breaking inflation, rising gas prices, a still-broken supply chain and more.  

Take a look at this more in-depth chart, showing the labor struggle intensifying for small business owners in several sectors. 

Many industries are returning to high labor shortage statistics and troubles


Some 73% of small business owners in the travel/lodging category (up 15% from 58% in Feb.) are really having a very hard time finding enough workers.  In fact, that was the highest jump across any industry in our recent labor-related polls.

After restaurants and travel, 80% in event management (up 13% from 67%) cannot find workers to fill open positions, along with 78% of owners running construction operations (up 1% from 77%), and 76% of car dealers and auto repair shops (up 10% from 66%).  

While retailers report that their labor shortage has remained the same for most of the year so far, at a still-high 59%, several industries have seen some improvement:

  • 80% of small manufacturers polled continue to struggle with hiring, but that's down 4% from Feb. 
  • 75% of beauty salons are still having staffing troubles, but that's down 5%.
  • 67% of those in the education industry can't find the proper workers, but that figure is not as bad as it was in Feb., down 6%. 
  • 50% of gyms can't find the right help, but that's an improvement of 15% compared with Feb. -- the most positive trend seen in the industry figures.  (Let's see if these numbers continue to improve next month, as it's still a little early to celebrate right now). 


Minority-Owned Businesses, Veterans Feel More Pressure

As you can see in these charts below, among all of the demographic groups polled, minority business owners and veterans have expressed the greatest concern over spring hiring challenges.  And both of those groups have seen significant increases in their hiring problems. 

The number of minority-owned businesses with hiring woes went up by 23% and an additional 13% of veteran-owned companies are now suffering from the ongoing hiring crisis.

Minorities and Veterans are suffering the most with labor shortages in May 2022


While there was some good news -- 3% fewer women-0wned businesses said they're having hiring troubles compared to February, while 4% fewer of the SMBs in the nonminority group are struggling. 

That said, since COVID struck, economic struggles often have been more intense for disadvantaged groups like minority business owners and some veterans, so these figures, unfortunately, show that these groups need much more help from the government and the general public to overcome their labor shortages.  

And, regardless of the demographic group, the majority of businesses in each group are still experiencing a significant labor crisis. We are a long way away from saying the small business labor shortage has been resolved. 

PA & NJ Become The Epicenter Of Labor Shortages In U.S.

Looking at the geographic distribution of small businesses having trouble filling job openings, you can see that Pennsylvania and neighboring New Jersey are at the epicenter of the current U.S. labor shortage problems.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey are at the epicenter of the U.S. small business labor shortage


A monumental 92% of small businesses in Pennsylvania
reported having trouble finding
and hiring the right people for the jobs that are open now. And that's up 23% over February, when the figure was at 69%. 

In New Jersey, the situation is almost as dire, as 85% of small business owners there say their labor shortage is bad and getting worse. Back in February, it was still quite daunting at 72%. But it has become worse for another 13% of New Jersey-based businesses since then. 

Increasing problems have been witnessed in Arizona (71%, up 3%), Michigan (70%, up 20%), New Y0rk (67%, up 10%), and North Carolina (also 67%, up 11%), as well.

States still reporting high rates of staffing challenges, but decreases from February include California (64%, down 7%), Ohio (62%, down 6%), Texas (59%, down 7%), Illinois (58%, down 4%), Massachusetts (57%, down 10%), and Florida (51%, down 10%). 

While these numbers are encouraging, it's still important to point out that the majority of small businesses in all of these states cannot fill the positions they have open. 

To see any other specific poll data related to other industries or states, please contact me at chuck@alignable.com. To see past poll results, go to Alignable's Research Center

ABOUT THE ALIGNABLE RESEARCH CENTER

Alignable is the largest online referral network for small businesses with 7 million+ members across North America. 

We established our research center in early March 2020, to track and report the impact of the Coronavirus on small businesses, and to monitor recovery efforts, informing the media, policymakers, and our members.


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