BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (AP) - Signs featuring the words Now Hiring and Help Wanted are an increasingly common sight outside restaurants locally and across the nation, but surprisingly few people are stepping forward and taking those jobs.
The COVID-19 pandemic put many people out of work as restrictions kept diners out of restaurants. Adjustments such as more drive-through traffic, deliveries and limited seating helped, but restaurants cut back on wait staff and other employees. Restrictions are starting to relax, but now they are having trouble bringing new employees in.
Jamie Null, executive director of the Mercer County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said local restaurants and service industries have been looking for new employees, but they are not receiving many applicants.
Some area restaurants are seeing people ask about jobs, but few of them are making that step from applicant to employee. The Corner Shop in downtown Bramwell has been hiring for months, said Manager Mandy Fink.
“We’ve got a lot of applicants who don’t ever come back to sign an application,” Fink said. “They never follow up to fill out an application, or they fill out an application and never show up for the interview. That’s happening a lot.”
Fink said that she believed some of the people who apply, but never follow through, are listing applications so they can keep receiving unemployment benefits.
“Right now, there’s a lot of people who are able to work,” she stated.
The reopening of the nearby Hatfield-McCoy Trail keeps the restaurant busy, but all that tourist activity has also left it needing more help, Fink said.
The RailYard in downtown Bluefield has staff now, but getting new employees “has been very hard,” said Manager Emma Cole.
“We have ads running constantly. We’ll go for weeks without getting some applicants,” she said. “And we’ll get applicants who apply, but never show up for an interview.”
Cole said that unemployment benefits, stimulus money and tax refunds could be keeping people from seeking new jobs.
“People are not really seeing a reason to come to work or get a job,” she said. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it right now.”
The people who are now employed at the RailYard want to work and want to keep a job, Cole added.
Employees at another restaurant have been working double shifts because applicants don’t show up for interviews. And in some cases, they’re hired, but don’t show up for their first day on the job, said Manager Janniell Charlton of Portabella in downtown Bluefield.
The problem has been going on for about two months, Charlton said.
“We’ve been trying to hire people, and either nobody will show up for their interview; or they get the job and they never come for their day of training,” she stated.
The current employees often work double shifts, and going home to their families can be difficult because they need to be at work, Charlton said.
“I mean, right now, I’d like to hire at least three or four more people,” she added. “We have only five right now and a lot of them do double. They come in the morning and don’t leave until we close.”
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