EAGLE, Idaho — A shortage in the labor force continues to affect businesses across the country but as summer approaches, some of those open positions could soon be filled by students looking for work.
The unemployment rate in Idaho continues to decline while the creation of jobs continues to rise, according to the Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare. However, businesses are still struggling to hire.
Hiring difficulty can be attributed to a number of factors. Besides a smaller workforce, IDHW also attributes the difficulty to people comparing wages, health safety at the workplace, and more job creation among other businesses.
While finding workers have proven to be a challenge, local businesses are hoping more applicants will appear as schools wrap up for the year.
Rodolfo Serva, the owner of KB's Burrito in Eagle, is very grateful for the uptick in business after the year his business had. While business has been consistent, the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made a gap in his workforce.
Right now, Serva's business only employs eight people. His staff typically consists of about 25 people at each of his five restaurants.
From online and radio advertisements to increasing the pay to a minimum of $15 an hour for cashiers and $18 an hour for cooks, Serva has done all he can to find employees.
"I am sad because a lot of businesses are closing during lunchtime or dinner time," he said. "I am closing Sunday and Monday, my best days. I have to give days off to my employees."
New data from the Idaho Dept. of Labor puts the statewide unemployment rate at 3.1%, making the job market extremely competitive.
"It's roughly about 28,000 unemployed for about 40,000 job postings, if not more," said Craig Shaul, the research analyst supervisor of IDL. "There are just more postings than there are people available at the moment."
The employment rate typically increases in Idaho during the summer months because of seasonal opportunities.
"The summer activities in resort towns like McCall and those types of areas have big influxes in seasonal workers," Shaul said. "There's more activity in the summer."
Although students will potentially look for work over the next few months, IDL said the labor shortage will continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future.
"Hopefully pretty soon it's going to change," Serva said. "Pretty soon we'll have lots of employees like before."
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