The East India Company restaurant in downtown Winnipeg is one of many Manitoba businesses at a critical point with labour shortages, after almost two years of pandemic restrictions, supply chain disruptions and rising inflation.
Now, the highly-contagious Omicron variant is forcing even more workers to stay home, East India Company owner Sachit Mehra told 680 CJOB Tuesday.
“It’s like, you know, jumping out of a frying pan and straight into the fire.”
Both front-end staff and skilled back-of-the-house kitchen positions are extremely hard to fill, Mehra continued. It’s not only Omicron, he says, but also longer-term issues such as low Canadian birth rates and the country’s immigration policy.
“We haven’t had people come into the country in the last couple of years,” Mehra said. “There’s just really nobody to fill those labour spots.”
His restaurant isn’t alone dealing with vacancies.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business in Manitoba says workplaces across the board, especially within hospitality, were already struggling with staffing shortages pre-Omicron, something the variant is only exacerbating.
“Unfortunately, it’s been devastating for many small businesses in Manitoba,” Kathleen Cook, provincial affairs director for CFIB in Manitoba, told Global News Monday.
Some are being forced to close, at least temporarily, because too many workers are self-isolating, she said.
“They were hit first with a 50-per cent capacity restriction, and then they started losing staff and customers to Omicron,” Cook continued. “Now we’re in January, which is typically a leaner month for many of these businesses already.”
“Many of them are not going to survive it.”
Small business optimism is fading quickly, after a year of relatively high spirits in 2021, Cook said.
Manitoba currently provides funding to businesses affected by the latest round of capacity restrictions through its sector support program.
However, even with the province’s other programs, they won’t help those businesses who shut down because their workers are self-isolating, Cook continued.
Eligibility should expand, she said, so more can benefit from them and make it through this winter.
As for East India Company, they’re open and hiring.
Workers asking for better pay, more flexibility: recruitment expert
From job dissatisfaction to staffing shortages caused by Omicron, more Canadians are looking to change jobs in 2022 in what’s being called “The Great Resignation,” as employers struggle to hire in-demand workers.
Surveys like recruitment firm Hays’ latest annual report suggest as many as two in three Canadians are seriously considering switching roles this year, a sentiment Winnipeg’s Staffmax Staffing & Recruiting president Kevin Gill says is apparent in Manitoba.
“We’ve never been busier. I’ve never hired more people,” Gill told 680 CJOB Tuesday. “It’s a great time in our business because … companies are coming to us to help them find workers, but it’s just tough to find workers.”
The tables have turned, Gill said. Workers now have the upper hand and are asking more from their bosses.
“I don’t see people quitting and moving on as much as I see people asking for certain things in their new roles,” he said. “We used to say to people who were asking for jobs, they’d ask us two questions: where is it and how much? And it’s changed. It’s three questions now: where is it, how much and can I work from home and have some flexibility?”
Staffmax has filled temporary dishwasher positions that pay $20/hour, Gill said. Manitoba’s minimum wage sits at $11.95.
“That alone should just tell you how tough it is to find workers in the hospitality area,” he said.
“When you say there’s that reflection in the ‘Big Quit’ going on, those are the types of jobs that people are having second thoughts on almost more than any other.
“It’s a tough job to be in hospitality and retail in the current environment.”