This blog post describes the problem of short-staffed restaurants and explains how Newberg locals should see how they are affected by it, and why they should support local restaurants.
One of the problems facing Newberg, Oregon currently is a shortage of employees for local restaurants. This lack of workers is largely due to covid; current employees are more often sick and unable to come to work, or else it is easier for them to call in sick whenever they don't want to come into work. Prospective employees are less likely to apply for a job because they may feel more comfortable working from home, or even not working at all since they can get a free unemployment check.
It is also affected by the rising minimum wage in Oregon, which makes restaurants hesitant to employ more workers. With the idea of an easier job with competitive pay and better hours from home, many people don't even consider applying to a job where they know they will likely have to work more hours, and often earlier or later in the day than they would like.
This is becoming a problem for several groups of people. For one, the managers of the different businesses are having a hard time attracting not only employees but also customers.
The remaining staff is affected as well because they are being overworked. For some George Fox students who have jobs at local restaurants, they are being asked to work more and more, and their schedule is becoming less dependable than ever because of how many constant changes there are.
But it also affects the locals that live in Newberg. For example, the local Dairy Queen has started closing an hour earlier than normal because they don't have the right amount of workers to stay open. This makes it much less convenient for the customers, especially the students who like to make a food run after classes or right before bed.
In the light of everything, this may not seem like that big of a problem. But as we can see, it affects a lot of people in a lot of different ways: from inconvenience to unemployment. The solution may not be simple, but we can start by supporting local restaurants and showing that we care.
