A record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November, a continuation of a trend known as the “Great Resignation”. Local service industry owners report feeling the burn from resignations in their sector, leading to understaffing as customers flock back to restaurants.
Drago’s owner Tommy Cvitanovich spoke with WWL about the current service industry labor market. He said many of those quitting the industry aren’t necessarily leaving for better paying jobs, they’re leaving for a better quality of life.
“They are leaving for better schedules, they left to go to work for Amazon because now they are going to work from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon, they are going to make roughly the same amount of money instead of working from five to ten o’clock at night,” said Cvitanovich.
Cvitanovich said to stem the service industry worker exodus they’ve had to offer pay raises, and set new salary floors.
“We start now in the $12 an hour range for people we used to start at $10 an hour,” said Cvitanovich. “We’ve got people that start, that are now making $17-$18 an hour that were previously making $15 dollars an hour, and they are working the hours.”
Cvitanovich said they’re about 20 people shy of optimal staffing levels at their Metairie location, and while they’re getting applicants many are not good fits.
“You get people that come in and they apply, but they are not, I hate to say they are not qualified, but it takes a special kind of person to be a waiter, it takes a special kind of person in training to be a line cook,” said Cvitanovich. “So the labor market is definitely better than it was a few months ago, it’s still not where it needs to be.”
