From all of the things I have read, I have put together a picture of the perfect storm that has resulted in this condition.
• people that were laid off last year had several months to start asking themselves "is this all there is?" and have realized that they want to do something else with their life.
• I have read articles about a massive amount of people moving out of the service industry (specifically food/bev) and into tech, so you have a lot of movement out of lower skilled positions into higher skilled ones
• some people have been living off the honey money
• some have inherited money from family members who died last year
• some people are just not engaging in the labor market right now because what the F just happened?
And the last one, which I believe is significant, but haven't seen any articles on, which is:
"Why the F*ck would I want to go back to being a line cook when I can flip Nikes on my phone and make more money?"
I think a massive amount of people are using tech to pick up side gigs and have decided to bet on themselves instead of working for someone else. I truly think this is the case. It had been talked about, we read stories about the gig economy, but this pandemic served as a catalyst to push people out of their comfort zones and decide to use their computers and phones to make money. In my opinion this is just the beginning. I don't think things will be the same or "revert to normal," especially in food and beverage.
As a side note we have been hiring for line cooks and sous chefs for over a year and cannot find people to fill these. We've upped the pay, it's a pretty great environment, and we just can't keep anyone there. The scenarios are very similar to your story about people who are no shows for interviews and when they are hired last less than a week.
• people that were laid off last year had several months to start asking themselves "is this all there is?" and have realized that they want to do something else with their life.
• I have read articles about a massive amount of people moving out of the service industry (specifically food/bev) and into tech, so you have a lot of movement out of lower skilled positions into higher skilled ones
• some people have been living off the honey money
• some have inherited money from family members who died last year
• some people are just not engaging in the labor market right now because what the F just happened?
And the last one, which I believe is significant, but haven't seen any articles on, which is:
"Why the F*ck would I want to go back to being a line cook when I can flip Nikes on my phone and make more money?"
I think a massive amount of people are using tech to pick up side gigs and have decided to bet on themselves instead of working for someone else. I truly think this is the case. It had been talked about, we read stories about the gig economy, but this pandemic served as a catalyst to push people out of their comfort zones and decide to use their computers and phones to make money. In my opinion this is just the beginning. I don't think things will be the same or "revert to normal," especially in food and beverage.
As a side note we have been hiring for line cooks and sous chefs for over a year and cannot find people to fill these. We've upped the pay, it's a pretty great environment, and we just can't keep anyone there. The scenarios are very similar to your story about people who are no shows for interviews and when they are hired last less than a week.