Amusement parks and hospitality industry face worker shortage

My brother had a teacher ask him if his goal was only to be a garbage man as if it was the most undesirable thing and my brother made him mad buy telling him it was actually a decent paying job and he would consider it.

TheMillenniumRider said:

If I had a nickel for every time my parents said I had to do good in school or go to college because I didn’t want to be *gasp* a garbage man.

I got that same talk too. Garbage man, bus driver, truck driver, mail man, etc. My years at WDW gave me such an appreciation and respect for hard working blue collar work and workers that my parents never did.

I was listening to a recovery speaker yesterday that recalled getting "the talk" about Work Hard, Be Successful---and how in retrospect it was all a bunch of hooey.

I still don't think my parents have ever "approved" of any job I've had because they aren't as white collar, prestigious or high paying as they'd like.

But I don't think either of them has been happy a single day in their careers. And I genuinely love my job. It provides me a very comfortable lifestyle and allows me a work/life balance my dad never has had a day in his life. Then again, back in the pre internet days he would have work sent via FedEx to the hotel when we would spend our one week a year in Florida on the only days he would take off all year. He also doesn't understand why I take all of my PTO time, thinking that anyone that takes all of their PTO each year is overdoing it and nobody needs more than a week off in a calendar year.

I think the best advice I ever got was from my grandpa. Just making money isn't enough. You have to get up every morning or afternoon or whatever to go to your job and it's going to be hard if you hate your job. He wasn't one of those "follow your passion" people but he stressed that making a lot of money isn't all it's cracked up to be if you dread going to your job every day. He was a carpenter/millwright. He liked his job and it made "enough" money.

I live in the Bay Area and one of my friends described it as full of “the poorest rich people.” Salaries here are higher than anywhere else (teachers make at least 50% more than they did in Texas), but everybody is one missed paycheck away from homelessness. And not, like, “have to downsize or live in a motel” homelessness, but “living out of my car and have to move back in with mom in another state” homelessness. In spite of all the 0’s on the end of paychecks, it’s a brutal place to live if you’re paying attention.

It's one of those phenomenon that has multiple causal factors, so one can't just point the finger at one thing. It's a perfect storm of many factors coming to head.

We are in weird times. Its common to hear people dismiss something that isn't the sole cause as being a cause at all.

I agree that there are many factors involved. Like pretty much all of life. Its nuanced. Tough to have discussions about solutions when you are looking for silver bullets that don't exist.

ApolloAndy said:

... In spite of all the 0’s on the end of paychecks, it’s a brutal place to live if you’re paying attention.

I have a couple friends who live out there and once they gave me the rundown of the living cost I was blown away. One of them quit Disney to work for Google and despite going out there for $250,000, he is paying almost $10,000 a month to live "close" to Google.

Those of us who work in software in remote jobs don't have a lot of sympathy for people who live in the bay area. 95% of tech jobs are literally everywhere else.

My brother works for the Goog and they’ve had problems with employees living on campus (in cars, tents, RVs etc) because not paying for housing is another full salary. As soon as remote work became a thing, half his team moved away (especially the DINKs and SINKs) for the same reason.

It’s amazing how all these John Galt worshipping libertarians are freaking out when the free market bites them In the ass. I have zero sympathy for places that can’t find workers. Eff ‘em.

There are multiple issues (almost all mentioned above) but the biggest is the rapid rebound in hospitality related jobs and the need to rehire all at once. However, expecting people to work for the same sh*tty subsistence wages isn’t going to cut it.

Not sure if anyone else did the math but this seems like a no brainer. I believe the unemployment benefit (with the Recovery Act bonus) is $700 per week in Florida ($2800 per month). Divide that by 160 hours and you get $17.50 an hour. So, anyone who was full time and laid off due to Covid is not likely going back until the bonus benefit expires in September.

I'm interested to see how Cedar Point and other parks around the country who relied on the BUNAC (foreign worker) program are going to respond. I thought Cedar Fair was hiring well over 1000 BUNCA employees each year...which is about 1/4 of their seasonal hires (give or take). It sure explains why some parks are considering not opening their water parks or other ancillary attractions.

In Ohio, you can get 50% of your weekly wages through unemployment insurance. $300/week federal bonus is $7.50/hour (assuming 40 hr week). So anyone making $15/hr would make at least as much (or more) on unemployment insurance. And that is before you factor in differences in taxes, costs of getting to work, etc. And I would expect that some people who make a little more than that may still think its worth to be in unemployment insurance based on non-monetary matters (don't have to spend 40 hrs working and probably an additional 5 hrs per week getting there/getting ready.

I don't think that is the sole reason but its definitely a reason.

Not to mention who would want to go back to that wage or less and deal with the public during all of this. I have to imagine hearing the horror stories of employees trying to enforce company covid policies and dealing with the "Karens" of the world just doesn't make anyone want to return to the workforce in a hurry.

As an owner of a FEC, I have a decent amount of high school and college aged staff. I give them this advice - if you want to dig ditches for the rest of your life, just make sure you are the happiest ditch-digger there can be.

And despite paying higher than average wages, this is the most challenging job hiring market I have ever seen in my 30+ years as well.

The market has spoken - pay up folks.

It may be a problem of pay, but sitting home has value. You might pay above prevailing wages, yet still not enough. So if I make $13/hr on unemployment, and I could make $15 by going to work, I could make more, but is it worth $2/hr to have to deal with crap at work all day? The gap will need to be widened by a much larger amount or I know the choice I would make.

Well, not to mention how much I have to pay for child care, gas & car maintenance, tolls, and all the other stupid stuff I have to deal with in going to work. But I think it’s obvious to me that the solution isn’t to decrease unemployment benefits.

The extra federal money expires in September I believe. Still, I'm not convinced that people wanting to not work is that much of a factor as much as the various other things that have been pointed out. Given the hesitancy mentioned in the story about safety, finding child care rhythms and all that, it's definitely not just people wanting to sit around for free money.

It's case of a litany of things making the value of staying at home greater than working right now. But that's not the market speaking or changing or whatever - it's exceptional circumstances and those dominoes (inflated unemployment benefits, COVID risk, etc) will fall as the pandemic ends.

When they do, people will still need to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Having to temporarily pay inflated wages to entice people away from an overall more desirable situation staying home, will quickly fade at that point.

"People gotta eat." - Kinzel