Restaurants face labor shortages amid back-to-school season - Axios AustinLog InLog InAxios Austin is an Axios company.

Restaurants face labor shortages amid back-to-school season

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios With Texas students headed back to school, already short-staffed restaurants are losing much-needed workers. Why it matters: The local leisure and hospitality industry has more employees than ever before, but restaurants are still struggling to bounce back from the pandemic, and labor shortages across the industry — now coupled with higher costs for everything — continue to hurt business. What's happening: Recent data from the Texas Restaurant Association found that just over two-thirds of the state's restaurant operators do not have enough employees to support customer demand.The group surveyed restaurants from July 14-Aug. 5. What they're saying: The figure has remained fairly consistent in recent years, but back-to-school season tends to exacerbate those shortages, according to Kelsey Erickson Streufert, spokesperson for the Texas Restaurant Association."We're an industry that does rely quite heavily on students and young people — summer jobs, part-time jobs," Erickson Streufert said. "At the same time, [customer] demand tends to fall pretty significantly around this back-to-school time." Zoom out: Restaurants are wrestling with worker shortages as students return to classrooms.Nationally, 60% of restaurants have reduced hours of operation, while 38% are closed on days they would normally be open, according to from the National Restaurant Association. The good news: Texas' rapid growth has allowed the leisure and hospitality workforce to surpass pre-pandemic levels, according to data. The Austin area employed 140,000 leisure and hospitality employees in July 2022, the latest data available, up from roughly 137,000 during the same period in 2019.Yes, but: Demand has grown significantly, and employee growth hasn't been enough to meet restaurants' needs, Erickson Streufert said. What to watch: The locally and nationwide are to increase wages and provide other incentives, like more vacation days, to attract — and retain — employees. Get more local stories in your inbox with .Subscribe Support local journalism by becoming a member.

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