A San Francisco flower shop is so desperate to hire workers that it put up a sign offering to hire “whoever shows up.”
Andrei Abramov, the owner of French Tulip Flowers in the city’s upscale Noe Valley neighborhood, told ABC 7 News that he and his girlfriend are the only staff in the store at the moment and are working around the clock to keep it open.
“Right now we accept anyone who is willing to learn and stay with us,” he said. “We had two employees and one of them retired, and another just opened his own store.”
It is just the latest incident of stores or restaurants launching desperate requests for workers as the US labor shortage continues, with a pizzeria in Alabama offering on Facebook “hire literally anyone”.
Low-wage businesses across the country are scrambling to find employees amid the so-called “Great Resignation,” which has seen the monthly rate of workers leaving their jobs rise more than at any time since at least last year. year 2000.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that 3 percent of the entire U.S. workforce quit in September, compared to lows of 1.6 percent in April 2020 and 1.2 percent after the previous financial crash of 2009.
The pattern has continued even after the end of emergency unemployment benefits, suggesting it may have more to do with workers reevaluating their lives after a global calamity and exhausting themselves on the poor wages and conditions that are endemic in trade in services.
Many companies, including in the San Francisco Bay Area, have offered recruitment bonuses and search fees, as well as lowered their minimum qualifications, although fewer have offered higher salaries.
Small business owners have said they cannot afford to increase outlays in the wake of the pandemic, unlike larger companies that can absorb the price, while restaurant workers have said they are finally asking for what they want. their work is worth it and should be compensated for the additional risk of exposure.
“Get used to it. Will not go away. It’s not temporary, ”Los Angeles economist Christopher Thornberg said at an event in September. “You will have more demand than you know what to do, but you will not be able to hire anyone.”
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