Lots of jobs, few workers: Local employers find it tough to land good help

A sign taped to the door at the McDonald’s in Wasilla sums it up — “Lobby closed due to a shortage of staff.”

The message? There are far more job openings in the Mat-Su Valley than workers to fill them.

The problem is so bad that managers have cut back days and hours of operation for lack of workers, they’re locking the doors to give staffs a breather, and are finding just a handful of applicants for jobs that once drew far more.

“We’ve been doing everything we can,” said Bob Cothern, district manager over Hawaii and Alaska for Savers, a second-hand store with 10 locations in the state. “I’ve talked to quite a few business owners and we’re all trying the same things — bonuses, higher wages. All of us are working diligently to get people in.”

Cothern said they’re down 30 to 35 percent of the workers they need in Wasilla. He said Anchorage is worse off.

Jessica Viera, executive director of the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce, said she’s hearing it from members.

“They’re not finding what they need. People just aren’t looking,” she said.

Employers who have had a pool of 100 or more applicants in the past now have one or two, she said. Viera has seen a lot of finger-pointing but said it’s hard to identify one specific reason for the crunch.

“There’s a lot of blame on the unemployment incentives,” she said of the extra $600, later reduced to $300, in federal unemployment benefits.

Alaska cut off the extra benefits in June, “but when it ended, it didn’t solve the problem,” Viera said.

She said wages are a hot topic, too. In the past, Viera said the rule of thumb was that if you’re paying more than McDonald’s or Walmart, you’ll attract good workers.

“What we see is that when the big employers nationwide can’t find employees they start pushing up wages,” she said, forcing local businesses to follow suit.

“If they’re not going to make a living wage, keep the lights on and pay the rent, they’re not going to come to work for you,” she said.

Keeping good staff

Employers with loyal staffs are taking measures to protect them, and consumers are feeling it.

Vagabond Blues Coffeehouse and Cafe in Palmer closed for one day in September just to give the staff a break. The Noisy Goose Cafe in Palmer closed 10 days for the same reason.

Amber Glasser, general manager of Everett’s in Wasilla, said the fine-dining restaurant has made changes to guard employees and the bottom line.

“We’ve had to cut back days and hours just to keep the current staff happy and not have too much overtime,” she said.

She said the days of offering minimum wage — $10.34 an hour in Alaska— are over.

“You have to offer a really great hourly wage,” she said, and opportunities for raises and advancement for those who show promise and a solid work ethic.

She is down three servers after recently hiring one and a busser. She had 45 applications but finds it hard to get job candidates to show up for an interview, and then keeping them if they do.

Glasser, who routinely tells her staff how much she and diners appreciate them, said the biggest challenge is that potential workers have options now — and that’s not always a bad thing.

“A lot of the people in this industry aren’t in it because they have to be; a lot have college degrees,” she said.

But with so many job opportunities, many are deciding to switch careers.

Cothern, the Savers district manager, said unemployment benefits — with or without the extra from the feds — are keeping some people at home. A recent offer of a $1,200 sign-on bonus hasn’t had many takers.

“It’s not luring them in like we thought it would be,” Cothern said. “What we hear is, ‘I make more money staying home.’”

When they do make a hire, he said the challenge continues.

“We’re losing them just as fast as we’re getting them,” he said.

A new landscape

Amanda Carlson, manager of the Mat-Su Job Center in Wasilla, said things are different now for employers, and the free services at the center can help guide them through it.

“The labor market has completely changed,” she said. “For many, many years it was an employers’ market. They’d put out a job posting and get 30 to 60 resumes. They’d schedule interviews for 15 people and all 15 would show up.”

Now, she said there are half the applicants and many don’t show up for interviews, often because they’ve landed another job.

“The script has flipped. It is now a job-seekers market,” she said.

What did it? She said a lot of it comes down to the pandemic and paychecks.

“Folks are taking a hard look at their financial situations, where they are in life, what they want to be doing,” she said. “Some are taking the opportunity to go back to school… I think there are a lot of things going on.”

The Mat-Su Job Center — one of 14 across Alaska operated by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development — currently has 1,084 job listings in the valley on its website alaskajobs.alaska.gov. There are more than 20,000 jobs statewide, with 7,300 in Anchorage. That doesn’t take into account employers who use other options to look for workers, including Indeed, Craigslist, newspapers or word of mouth.

Competition for workers means employers have to reconsider how they’ve been doing business, Carlson said.

Among the changes could be hiring fewer workers and making them full time instead of part time to include benefits; offering work-from-home options to lure the 30,000 to 40,000 people who drive to Anchorage for work and would rather not; and look at hiring people they’ve overlooked in the past — those with disabilities, background-check issues or who don’t have all the educational requirements.

She said the Job Center helps address many of those through its Business Connection Staff. For example, it will pay to bond a company willing to take on a risky hire.

“We have lots of incentives for employers who will hire people with barriers,” Carlson said. “We need to tap into these populations that you might not have thought of in the past.”

They also have an apprentice program, career support and training and funding to help workers obtain state credentials, among other services.

“We say that we help people get a job, keep their job or make more money,” she said.

As for service-industry employers where wages are typically low and employee churn is high, she said their best ambassadors could be those who already work for them — provided the workplace is upbeat, teaches new skills and offers incentives.

“What is your demographic?” Carlson said. “Have your employees reach out to their friends and tell them what you offer — a free lunch, willingness to work around schedules. Are you using Facebook and Instagram to reach those people? Go where they are.”