Businesses are having a hard time finding new employees

After the pandemic shut down many industries and businesses, people are beginning to hire again. But, now they’re having difficulty finding workers to fill those positions.

There could be multiple factors contributing to that but Florida Senator Marco Rubio blames the government. He says small businesses can’t hire people back because the governments paying people not to work.

So many companies have decided to offer incentives to get people back to work.

There are signs in downtown Fort Myers that businesses are open and ready.

But, businesses cannot bring in customers without their treasured employees.

Steven Shea is the general manager at Seed and Bean Market ad says he’s got jobs available but no takers.

“It absolutely is a struggle,” Shea said.

And he isn’t quite sure why. “And I don’t know if that’s because people are still afraid to come back out in the public spaces, or potentially because of the other benefits in avenues that they still have while they’re at home,” said Shea.

Jim Wall with CareerSource Southwest Florida says it’s both. And then, there’s the cost of childcare that needs to be considered.

“Here are more jobs than there are job seekers. That’s great news for the job seeker, not so good news for the businesses,” said Wall.

Walmart, Amazon and Costco are all raising wages. “I have never seen in my 30 years in this business, more opportunities for job searches,” Wall said.

In a survey, The National Federation of Independent Business found 44% of its member companies reported job openings they could not fill in April. That is a record high.

Fort Myers Beach is seeing the same issue. Jason Ingream is the owner of Mangoritas.

“I know almost every restaurant is hiring at this point,” Ingream said.

Melissa Schnieder is the Marketing Director for Lani Kai.

“If anyone is interested, we’re hiring for a lot of positions,” Schneider said.

CareerSource says once local businesses hire someone, they immediately focus on keeping them. They do this by increasing benefits and offering incentives.