Warren County
Warren County has been actively recruiting people to take jobs, not just to get money and experience but to help the local economy.
In the past month, a number of stories in national media have said that COVID-related unemployment benefits are not causing a labor shortage, but local small businesses who are facing the crunch, do not believe it.
Mike DeLarm of Lakeview Antiques was having none of it in an early-June interview.
“That’s [BS],” the Bolton Landing business owner said. “I’ve got a guy, he’s staying home right now.”
Down the street, a young shift supervisor at Neuffer’s Deli said his friends who were taking summer vacation.
“They don’t want to come off unemployment,” he said.
Dave Harmon, owner of West Side Sports Bar and Grill in Saratoga Springs said people asked him if they could work off-the-books and get paid by the government and by him. He told them no. They did not come to work.
Others interviewed, especially in the hospitality industry, said much the same thing.
The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program provides 53 weeks of additional benefits to people who meet requirements, according to a state Department of Labor website. The benefits expire Sept. 5, the Sunday before Labor Day.
Some local officials admit that the unemployment benefits might be having an impact, but the region just might have more opportunities, but no people to fill them.
Warren County has 2,000 open jobs, including seasonal jobs, right now, said Jim Siplon, the President of the Warren County Economic Development Corporation.
Liza Ochsendorf, the Warren County Employment and Training administrator, wrote in an email that the tri-county region is almost 10,000 workers short: 2,000 fewer workers are available in Warren County, 6,000 fewer in Saratoga, and 2,000 in Washington County.
Plus, the federal J-1 Visa program that allows foreign college students to work in the summer has been shut down since spring 2020. The region would normally see 500 to 1,000 employees, called “J-1s.”
“There’s only a tiny fraction of them here, now,” Siplon said. Finding people to fill jobs at the lowest end of the economic ladder is difficult in good times, he said. “We don’t have an unlimited supply of entry-level labor."
“The fact that J-1s are limited really wreaks havoc on our area that relies on hospitality and tourism for 85% of our economy,” wrote Kelli Hatin in an email. She is a business and hospitality professor at SUNY Adirondack. She also agreed that jobs at the lower end of the economic scale are hit hardest by the labor shortage, but she still sees the unemployment benefits as troublesome, blaming it for 30% of the current job openings.
Ochsendorf believes that a small percentage are staying out of the workforce because of the unemployment benefits. Other at-home factors such as childcare and fluctuating school schedules are at play.
Local businesses are trying, both Hatin and Ochsendorf said.
Numbers out today from the Bureau of Labor statistics bear this out. Under the category “Food Preparation and Serving Related,” the Glens Falls area, at $16 per hour, paid 20% more in May than similar jobs nationally.
The unemployment problem may be stronger at that entry level.
Statistics for April show statewide unemployment in Business and Professional Services is 93.5% of what it was in Apr 2019; Trade, Transportation and Utilities is at 89.5%; and Construction is 90.5% of what it was in April 2019.
However, the total number of jobs in Labor and Hospitality statewide was 69% of what it was in April of 2019, according to BLS website.
Ochsendort cautioned these numbers might not be as specific to our region because so many restaurants held on and survived. New York City lost many, many more restaurants, jobs that no longer exist. That might be driving statewide data.
We may know in late June if the troubles stem from unemployment benefits or other issues, Ochsendorf wrote in the email: “The states that were able to end the federal enhanced unemployment benefits early should be starting to see some data about whether it made a difference or not.”