Labor
Businesses are struggling to staff up following pandemic layoffs
Long Beach Business Journal 6/17
Now, Long Beach business owners are struggling to find workers—a nationwide issue. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 83% of industry association economists say employers are having a harder time hiring today than they did five years ago and 91% of state and local chambers say the labor shortage is slowing economic recovery.
Downtown LA Argentine Restaurant Barcito Is Closing Permanently
Eater Los Angeles 6/17
Borgen factored in the ups and downs of restaurant ownership, the weariness of COVID-19 burnout, frustrations with the California Restaurant Association’s late 2020 push to reopen versus relief, the long struggle to bridge the pay gap between front and back-of-the-house staff, and commitment to keep her employee’s healthcare during a time when over 600,000 Americans died of the coronavirus within 15 months.
Food Industry Policy
Can Technology Solve the Restaurant Staffing Shortage?
Modern Restaurant Management 6/17
Now with the nationwide return to dine-in business, the restaurant employee shortage may be one of the biggest barriers to successful reopening and the survival of many businesses. Additional hiring challenges include lingering employee anxieties around virus exposure, a shortage of seasonal foreign workers, and generous stimulus payments that compete with restaurant wages.
Can food halls help diversify the post-pandemic restaurant industry? Yes, if done right
Salon 6/17
Food halls are building back even bigger as restrictions are lifting. How do we make them better for all?
On the Side
LA street vendors describe challenges to acquiring permits after their food is thrown out
ABC7 Los Angeles 6/17
Street vendors watched and recorded as Los Angeles County Public Health employees threw away their food merchandise Saturday afternoon because they did not have the correct permits.
Why are over 35 cars allowed to wait in Fresno fast food drive-thrus? What we found out
The Fresno Bee 6/17
One thing Fresnans love to rant about: drive-thru restaurant lines jam-packed with cars. Last week, The Bee published a story about the owner of Westwoods BBQ & Spice Co. complaining publicly about the line of dozens of cars from Chick-fil-A blocking parking spaces near his restaurant.
