Stories From the Great American Labor Shortage

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode contains strong language. Bartenders, sous chefs, wait staff — at the moment, managers in the U.S. hospitality industry are struggling to fill a range of roles at their establishments. Managers blame pandemic unemployment benefits for the dearth of talent. Employees say that the pandemic has opened their eyes to the realities of work. We spoke to workers and managers about why it has become so hard to get some staff back to work.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Lecobabaro. This is a daily life.
0:08.0	After laying off millions of workers at the start of the pandemic,
0:12.4	companies across the service industry now face a very different kind of employment crisis.
0:19.3	The pandemic has left the country facing a labor shortage with the retail and restaurants sectors
0:23.7	leading the way. A crippling shortage of workers.
0:27.2	Some businesses are having trouble hiring enough workers to reopen fully.
0:31.3	Today, the mom and pop shops just starting to reopen,
0:34.8	they're facing a smaller labor pool than ever before.
0:37.9	How exactly did that happen?
0:40.0	Look at what's driving workers away.
0:42.4	My colleagues spoke to the businesses scrambling to find workers
0:47.3	and to the workers unwilling to return to those jobs.
0:51.8	It's Tuesday, August 3rd.
1:04.6	Hello, hello. This is Sydney Harper, producer with the daily here in DC.
1:10.0	This is Claire Tennis-Getter. I am on Smith Street in Brooklyn.
1:14.1	Walking up and down 18th Street in the nation's capital.
1:17.9	18th Street is a big hill.
1:23.6	Challenge is to brighten hard.
1:32.1	Hi.
1:33.3	Hi, I'm a producer with the New York Times at the Daily News Podcast.
1:36.9	We're trying to do an episode looking at businesses and local restaurants
1:40.0	hiring people and if they're having trouble finding people,
	...

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