83% of Restaurants Still Can’t Fill Jobs, Up 3%

May 11, 2022

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By Anna Peel. Originally published at ValueWalk.

The U.S. Jobs Report was a highlight of last week’s economic news. However, across the small business landscape, the job situation for many employers is growing bleaker as 2022 proceeds. While the majority of SMB employers want to hire more people, the percentage of small businesses facing labor shortages continues to rise in key industries and among disadvantaged groups.

Majority Of The Restaurants Still Can’t Fill Jobs

That’s one of many insights from Alignable’s May Labor Shortage Report, based on a survey that just ended yesterday among 2,482 small business owners. The report compares these new figures with other findings from a February poll of more than 6,286 SMBs. Here are some key insights:

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83% of restaurants still can’t find the help they need, which is severely limiting their ability to recover. And this figure is 3% worse than it was in February.
The Labor Shortage is also getting worse for 73% of SMBs in travel/lodging, up a whopping 15% since Feb., along with 80% of event management firms (up 13%), 76% of car dealers, repair shops and others in the automotive industry (up 10%), and 78% of small construction firms (up 1%).

The staffing crisis is also growing more severe for disadvantaged groups including 81% of minority business owners (up 23%) & veteran-owned SMBs (up 13%).

Small business owners in several states are seeing a labor shortage surge, too. These include 92% of SMBs in PA (up 23% from Feb.), 85% in NJ (Up 13%), 71% in AZ (up 3%), 70% in MI (up 20%), 67% in NY (up 10%), and 67% in NC (up 11%).
On average, across all industries and demographic groups, 63% of all SMB employers say they’re unable to fill the jobs they have open, which interferes with their ability to make the revenue they’re accustomed to earning when fully staffed.
- Partly because of the year-long labor shortage, only 27% of all SMBs have fully recovered to their pre-pandemic monthly revenue numbers. That figure from Alignable’s April Road To Recovery Report is down 16% from December.
- On a positive note, the 63% figure is 2% better than it was in February. But as you can see looking at key industries and demographic groups, the labor shortage continues to get worse for many — and, sadly, there’s no end in sight.