Workforce Shortage:
Is Help Finally on the Way?
A recent online post listed 55 area businesses—from corporate giants to “mom and pop” operations— as needing workers. Help wanted signs are everywhere—in the store windows of local shops and posted along the roads, even on restaurant marquees. The local situation mirrors what is going on around the country. After COVID-19 restrictions finally eased up people who have grown dependent on government checks aren’t in a hurry to get back to work—at least until these checks stop coming. Most of the business representatives interviewed by The Advance unabashedly blamed federal subsidies and unemployment ben- continued from page
efits for the workforce disruption; but there is hope that recent action by Governor Kemp will help turn the workforce deficit around by the end of the summer and life can get back to normal.
Georgia is joining a growing number of Republican- led states in cutting off federal unemployment benefits to incentivize out-of-work employees to return to their jobs. Governor Kemp said in an interview with Fox News last Thursday that the Georgia Department of Labor will stop issuing $300 weekly checks to jobless workers next month, Dave Williams, Bureau Chief, Capitol Beat News Service, reported Friday.
The governor’s remarks followed a call from a coalition of statewide business organizations for the state to intervene in a workforce shortage crisis. The coalition spearheaded by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce released an op-ed complaining that companies can’t find workers for a growing list of job openings because unemployed Georgians are receiving more in state and federal jobless benefits than they could earn by going back to work.
“It is hurting our productivity not only in Georgia but across the country,” Kemp acknowledged. “We’ve got to get more people into the workforce.”
Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, voiced his support of the Governor’s action. “President Biden and the federal government have turned their backs on local business owners desperately facing labor shortages by continuing to hand out taxpayer dollars in the form of needless unemployment benefits,” Miller said in a prepared statement. The $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package Biden signed into law last month extends the $300 weekly unemployment checks into September. Responding to complaints that the checks are encouraging virus-wary Americans not to return to work, Biden said last week that anyone who refuses to take a suitable job will lose unemployment benefits, according to Capitol Beat.
At least a dozen states with Republican governors have taken steps to cut off the federal benefits, including South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. Kemp said Georgia will stop issuing the weekly federal checks in mid-to-late June. In the op-ed released last week Georgia’s business community noted, “Our economy has quickly rebounded thanks to a balanced pandemic strategy coupled with record-high consumer spending… [But] retailers cannot keep certain items in stock, and factory orders are piling up. Because they cannot find labor, businesses are starting to turn down orders, raise prices, and some are even considering closing permanently.” Business leaders and their Republican allies have been complaining for months that federal unemployment benefits aimed at helping employees thrown out of work by COVID-19 – which began last year at $600 per week and have since been reduced to $300 – offer some unemployed workers more than they could earn by returning to work, Capitol Beat reported.
According to the business groups’ op-ed, Georgia businesses have reported at least 406,000 job openings during the last 90 days. Locally, business owners are hanging on and waiting for better days they hope will arrive by late summer. Kelly Moore, Support Services Manager (IT, HR and Finance) for Savannah Luggage in Vidalia said last week that his company is “in dire need of employees.” Moore elaborated, “We are good as far as warehouse people. We need more skilled labor for production.” The company’s production team is down by about 20 operators. “We are looking mostly for sewing machine operators,” Moore said. Normally, the company has about 85 employees in production, but it is operating with 64. He said government subsidies and unemployment benefits are to blame. “They are being paid more to sit at home.” He said Savannah Luggage, which has been in Vidalia 40 years, has a history of rewarding its workers. Moore said company administration hopes current employees will be motivated to help recruit new employees and Savannah Luggage has put into place a number of incentives to assist this objective. The company has two referral bonus programs which reward current employees who bring in new recruits. The company also rewards employee efficiency on the job with another bonus, and, last year all hourly employees got an extra perk. “Some employees got the equivalent of a $1200 bonus,” Moore said, adding, “We have been working really hard to retain our workers.”
Moore explained, “We start people with no experience at $9 hour. An incentive is in place to offer these employees an extra $1 per hour if they just show up for work and work at least 38 of the 40 hours they are scheduled to work.” Additionally, the company went all out to make everyone feel safe on the job during the pandemic. “We were closed down in the first two weeks of April 2020. That was mainly to allow time to make adjustments here, spread out operators, and put in hand sanitizing stations. We had to replace all clocking systems with noncontact systems.” With 105 employees, the plant only had five incidents with COVID, and all recovered and returned to work.
Even with a pandemic, 2020 was a record year sales wise, Moore said. “But we couldn’t find enough employees to expand that. We had to turn away work.” This probably had a 25% impact on sales, Moore said.
”As soon as they cut off the money supply, we believe we will be back up to where we need to be,” Moore said of the unemployment benefits. “But it probably won’t be before the end of July or first of August.”
Moore added, “One of our biggest customers would like for us to expand our capacity to make more of their product, but we have had to tell them we cannot do any more for them at the moment.” He noted that the military has approached Savannah Luggage about a production deal that had to be delayed until the workforce is back up to normal levels. All is not lost, however. “I think the opportunity will still be there in August and September,” Moore said of the two contracts.
Wayne Lady, operating partner at Shoney’s in Vidalia lamented, “Right now I am not getting any applications in. Nobody is applying.” A depleted workforce has caused a number of issues at the local restaurant including having to close early a few times and putting Lady and his managers into unusual circumstances in order to serve customers. “This morning at breakfast I was one of the two cooks,” Lady said Friday. “We’re coming in at 7:30 in the morning and working until 8:30 and 9 o’clock at night because there is no one else to do the work.”
Lady said he is need of 10 to 12 new employees— about 20% of his workforce— to fill positions as servers, cashiers and cooks. In order to attract employees he has posted help wanted messages on the Shoney’s marquis, placed flyers in the restaurant and bought radio ads. “I’m doing a sign-on bonus–$100 if they last 45 days, and a referral bonus if an employee recruits another employee.”
Not having a full staff has slowed service down quite a bit, Lady allowed, but having a buffet where customers serve themselves has helped. Still, he has had to close sections of the restaurant when he was short on servers. Lady agrees that the cause of the worker shortage is unemployment benefits. “I think that is probably a lot of it. I have not had anyone come in and say they were afraid to work because of corona.”
He emphasized, “I start people at up to $11 an hour and some of my long-term employees are making more than that. It is not that we are not paying a decent wage.”
Lady hopes that once word gets out that unemployment benefits are going to stop or that people who get unemployment have to prove they are looking for a job, the workforce will get back to normal. “Maybe they need to pay people a stimulus to come back to work,” he quipped.
Greg Riekhof, General Manager at the Chicken of the Sea International (COSI) plant in Lyons, said that company has multiple open positions at all levels and continues to look for dedicated people to join their team.
“Our core team is very dedicated to producing highest-quality canned tuna and to fully support our local communities. We have been promoting and communicating open positions through advertising and participating in local activities and events such as the Sweet Onion Festival,” Riekhof said. “The Families First Coronavirus Response Act provided much needed relief for many in need. However, as more good jobs became available, the various government and state agencies were slow react and that has impeded companies like ours from being able to hire effectively,” Riekhof added.
Kim Gholston, COSI HR Manager, noted, “At Chicken of the Sea, we are different from many other plants, we believe in promotion from within and being able to hire the majority of our employees directly. Team members that demonstrate the commitment and ability to get the job done have the opportunity to move up in a short period of time. Many entry level positions have worked their way up to technical and manager level positions.”
During the past year, COSI has provided employees with regular hero bonuses as well as significant pay increases. “We increased our communication meetings and have celebrated our role as Critical to Infrastructure workers with weekly celebrations and recognition events. The majority of our employees tout COSI’s generous benefits, world-class safety, competitive pay, and opportunities to grow,” Gholston said. Vance Laughlin, Warden at CoreCivic’s Wheeler Correctional Facility, said the workforce situation there is not unique. “We’re just like everybody else. It is hard to find employees nowadays.” Laughlin said he has talked to many business leaders who are having the same problems and insisted that for any prison in the state “it is the same across the board. “ Laughlin said he is still able to fill critical posts but is using a lot of overtime. “Hopefully, all of this will stop and America will get back to work. This isn’t doing anybody any good for the long term.” Stacy Randall, Human Resources Manager at McLendon Enterprises in Vidalia, said that company has experienced some employment issues, but compared to other similar companies these issues were minimal. The heavy civil construction- engineering and design company, which also has an asphalt plant and does road work, has 171 employees in the South Georgia region. Currently, the company has three slots for heavy equipment operators. “The turnover rate in the construction world is high. We are always hiring. We always need people, from laborers to truck drivers,” Randall said.
Randall participated in a Georgia Roads job fair in Pooler earlier this month and only had seven people who filled out applications. She recalled that one applicant said he had four more weeks of unemployment before he would be ready to go back to work. With the current emphasis on rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, the jobs are out there, Randall said. “Everyone needs help. If you don’t have a job, it’s your own fault.”
NOW HIRING – A sign in front of the marquee at Shoney’s Restaurant on Highway 280 in Vidalia solicits employees.
