Ohio鈥檚 unemployment rate is 5%, just slightly higher than it was before the double-digit spike from the pandemic last year. 鈥淗elp Wanted鈥� and "Now Hiring鈥� signs are common sights, especially at restaurants and retail stores. Some businesses are actively advertising they鈥檒l pay well above Ohio鈥檚 minimum wage of $8.80, along with signing bonuses. So why aren鈥檛 they finding workers? The answer may surprise you.
Brendan Joyce worked in a Cleveland area restaurant before he was laid off last spring. He had to wait weeks to get unemployment for a variety of reasons. And now that he could go back to work at the restaurant, he鈥檚 not going to.
鈥淚鈥檓 never going back to work in restaurants. And I think it鈥檚 disgusting and offensive that anyone would expect restaurant workers to after the way they鈥檝e been treated for the last year. Also, the rudeness from customers and aggressiveness and defensiveness about wearing masks that I鈥檝e heard from people on top of literally being exposed to a pandemic simply so people can get drunk or eat an expensive meal. It鈥檚 just鈥t鈥檚 deeply offensive," Joyce said.
Joyce is now attending a university, working to change his career.
Restaurants throughout Ohio said they are short staffed. So are retail stores. A record 649,000 retail workers quit in April, the largest number of resignations from retailers in more than two decades of U.S. Labor Department data.
Some businesses are paying well above minimum wage and even giving signing bonuses. Cedar Point and Kings Island are paying up to $20 an hour for some positions and cutting hours of operation because they can鈥檛 get enough workers. Some businesses nearby have said they can鈥檛 get workers because of high amusement park pay.
Many Republicans are blaming the $300 federal subsidy that鈥檚 been paid to unemployed Ohioans for holding back economic growth. So, Ohio is stopping those payments on Saturday. About half of the states are doing the same. Nearly all are led by Republicans. The federal program for the 25 states that will continue to participate expires on Labor Day.
The new leader of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Republican former Congressman Steve Stivers, thinks ending those benefits is the right choice.
鈥淧art of the problem is we鈥檙e paying people to sit on the couch. Three hundred dollars a week, plus the regular unemployment benefits. That鈥檚 the equivalent of a $45,000 a year job. That鈥檚 a problem," Stivers said.
But some workers say that鈥檚 simply not the case. Isabel Alvarado of Columbus said she couldn鈥檛 go back to her job because she didn鈥檛 have childcare.
"I was working remotely and then the office requested me to return to work. But I couldn鈥檛 find daycare within the time frame they gave me so I basically lost my job," Alvarado said.
She鈥檚 not alone. When much of the state was shutting down last spring, Rita Halleveld鈥檚 daughter lost her slot at a Columbus area Montessori preschool.
鈥淚n order to meet the requirements for COVID precautions, they had to cut their early childhood program by 60%. And so they closed their toddler preschool and had fewer spaces open. And at that point, it was only going to be like academic year stuff anyway. So, I was already in a position to having to search for childcare for the summer in order to be able to continue working. When the fall hit, they still weren鈥檛鈥�.they just didn鈥檛 have any spaces left," Halleveld said.
Halleveld has been able to get some pandemic unemployment assistance throughout the year. She just recently found childcare. But she鈥檚 a self-employed social worker so now she has to build her client base back up, and it might be tough for a while.
While the state says everyone who wants to get vaccinated can, more than half of the state鈥檚 population has not.
Some workers said are afraid of going back to work in close spaces without a mask mandate because they have health conditions that put them at greater risk if they should get COVID.
