Every person has seen the many “help wanted” and hiring signs strewn across towns all over America. Most of this shortage in labor is seen in minimum-wage or low-skilled jobs, such as those in retail and food-service. So what is making workers quit easier in the last year? These kinds of jobs are never as enjoyable. As a worker in both retail and food-service, I can attest to that. Workers have to deal with terrible customers when working in customer service, hard physical labor, and poor management. But what has actually changed in the last year to make jobs less tolerable? Insider article by Mary Hanbury discusses the changes in the year such as a shift from full-time to part-time work, causing workers to lose benefits. These jobs are not the most attractive, but when the job is necessary to fund a family the benefits help. Since recently a number of stimulus checks have been issued and unemployment benefits are rising depending on the state, workers may feel they have the ability to jumpstart into a better career. We are now seeing the effects of bad retail and food-service work practices and experiences gone unattended for years. With these bad effects, managers will have to find ways to incentivize workers, whether that is more benefits or raised wages when possible. Either way, the culture of these jobs have changed. What used to be a promising career has become purely an entry-level job. Hopefully, managers will be able to find a way to keep workers and reduce turnover somewhat.
https://www.businessinsider.com/labor-shortage-working-in-retail-workers-stores-pay-conditions-2021-11
As someone who has worked in food service and minimum-wage jobs, I can definitely relate to this post -- it is very difficult to stay motivated and fight the burnout in a job where the working conditions are less than satisfying, and the job itself probably doesn't benefit your future. I stopped working minimum wage when I realized that the job I was doing had nothing to do with the career that I wanted to have.
I think another factor with this now is COVID. During quarantine a lot of people stopped working, and the stimulus checks came out, and then people were way less motivated to go out and get another job because they were already making more money than they likely would if they worked a minimum wage job. Overall, great post!