NORFOLK, Va. — As restaurants and businesses are filling up with customers this summer, many are still desperately looking for workers to lighten the load.
Some realize they have to get creative to compete with others.
The U.S. added 850,000 jobs in June, which is a good sign, but some businesses are still struggling to fill their open spots.
Randy Hobbs runs The Green Onion in Ghent. He’s supposed to spend his time managing his employees, doing paperwork, and putting in orders... but that's all changed.
"Right now most of my time is spent taking care of customers, hosting, even washing dishes occasionally. Playing busboy," said Hobbs.
He says business has really picked up in the last few months.
"It’s really nice to see all the customers coming back out and all, we just need more staff which is 99 percent what most of the restaurants and small businesses are doing."
ShoreBreak over in Virginia Beach is advertising a free gym membership, free food, and tuition reimbursements if you come work for them.
Bigger companies like Wawa were offering a $500 new hire signing bonus and a $75 vaccine incentive in the spring.
According to Indeed.com, the proportion of job advertisements that promise some kind of signing bonus has more than doubled in the past year. But, that is something Hobbs says they just can’t compete with.
"A small business can’t offer a lot of incentives like some of the big corporations do," he said. "I think we’d still be in the same situation because even the companies that are offering the big bonuses and the big incentives and stuff to come work, they still have signs up looking for people to come to work."
We asked Hobbs if he has any idea when things may get back to normal with a bigger staff.
"Nope. Not a clue."
He said he’s hoping once college students come back to the area in the fall, that may help them out. Until then, he’s asking people to be patient at their restaurant and every other restaurant around here because they are all in the same boat.
The number of advertised job openings reached 9.3 million in April. That’s the highest number in 20 years of data, according to the Labor Department.