Help Wanted: Severe staffing shortages nationwide are crushing Rhode Island’s culinary industry

It’s the cusp of summer, and the Ocean State is opening up to full capacity. Masks are coming off, visitors are returning in droves, the energy is creeping back—and so is the trust. In Covid’s shadow, customers hope to find solace in a shared meal, yet local restaurants are still treading water.

No-Shows and a Trickle of Applicants

Amid a nationwide labor shortage that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports is getting worse, “help wanted” pleas pepper restaurant windows and social media accounts from Newport to Westerly to Providence. Online job boards are replete with fulfilled work opportunities, and incentives like higher pay and sign-on bonuses attempt to attract workers. 

“We are in an emergency situation. It’s not just in Rhode Island, it’s national, and it will be a threat to our economy here,” says Dale Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association (RIHA), a nonprofit that educates and advocates for the state’s hospitality businesses. Of the few job applications restaurants receive for advertised positions, she adds, “there are no-shows for interviews, and there are people who commit to the job and don’t show up on their first day. I don’t know of another time that has happened with such frequency.”

This is the next step on a path of instability that has impacted the hospitality industry over the past 18 months. And while most businesses have reinvented their approach for attracting and serving customers, hospitality employees have shared in the unpredictability. Now nearly all restaurants, hotels and caterers in Rhode Island have too few employees to prepare, cook and serve food and drink. This discrepancy occurs even as restaurant reservations are skyrocketing.

“The application flow is a trickle,” says Casey Riley, chief operating officer of Newport Restaurant Group (NRG), which operates 13 restaurants across Rhode Island and Massachusetts. “We are not focused on [job applicants’] past experience. If they have a good attitude, and respond to our recruitment and training, then they probably will get a job. It’s just that not enough people are looking for work.”

Cutting Hours and Scaling Back Offerings 

NRG is only 60% staffed, predominantly in its Newport, Tiverton and Narragansett restaurants that are heavily seasonal, Riley says. Its Smoke House opened for the summer two weeks late with reduced hours, while Hemenway’s in Providence ceased lunch service because of insufficient staff, he says.

These modifications are common across the state’s eateries, despite size or seating capacity. Tavern 6 Two 1 in North Smithfield had 13 staff pre-Covid and now has just four—including owner Monica Martins, who decided to close on Mondays, cut lunch service during the week, reduce menu items and open late to accommodate staffing.

“It’s not even about the money anymore, it’s that I don’t have enough time because I don’t have enough people to do anything,” Martins says. “I can’t work on my business when I’m working in my business. I can’t revamp the menu or redo the patio or do marketing because I’m cooking chicken parmesan, because I can’t find a line cook. My passion for creating new plates and doing fun stuff is gone because I’m too busy dicing peppers.”

Sustained supply chain issues exacerbate staffing woes, Martins adds. On top of increased prices for everyday items like chicken wings and burgers, a lack of truck drivers and warehouse workers across the country means she doesn’t reliably receive shipments of food and beer. So she either buys items from a source like Restaurant Depot, or she closes because she can’t properly stock her kitchen.

Time vs. Money; Where are the Workers?

Venturini says the reason for this is multifaceted. Employees who were laid off during Covid may still be receiving enhanced federal unemployment benefits, which are too good for some to relinquish. Former staff may have moved away during the pandemic, taken another job or left the industry. Some workers are caring for children and parents, which is a huge struggle for women, she says. Transportation and accessibility continue to plague immigrants, many of whom work in hospitality kitchens, while other workers are just too leery of returning to a shifting post-pandemic workspace. 

When Riley began normal recruiting in February, it became apparent that there was a problem. He says they offered pay increases to everyone in the kitchen, and a $125 per week bonus for line cooks and dishwashers, which exceeds pre-Covid salaries.

“There are a lot of reasons for that. But the $300 federal unemployment benefit is a big hurdle for businesses to overcome,” Riley says. “I have done the math, and if you come work for us, you’ll make more money than the government would pay you to stay unemployed. But we can’t compete with time. To make money, you have to come to work. And if you have a situation at home, you won’t come to work.”

James Rego, manager of Warren’s Rhody Roots, says if they boosted pay they would have to raise pricing, which might deter customers. So instead they ditched travel-averse dishes in favor of takeout friendly sandwiches and sushi, because they take less time and fewer hands to prep and serve. They’re still searching for a line cook, she says. 

Opportunities for Students

These shortcomings actually are a boon for one key group: student interns. For the students at Johnson & Wales University who are interested in hospitality, food and beverage careers, this summer has seen phenomenal opportunity, says Sheri Young, dean of experiential education and career services. She says 348 students secured summer internships this year, compared to 300 in 2019. The bottleneck created by Covid has disappeared, and there are more jobs available than students.

“We came into this summer with so many opportunities at so many locations that students could pick what they wanted,” Young says. “It’s significantly higher than pre-Covid, which is really great news for our students. Even the percentage of paid opportunities is higher: 88% now, versus 75–80% before.”

Students benefit from increased hourly rates and retention bonuses too, Young says, which impacts everyone from line cooks to servers and hotel interns. The challenge is for the smaller sites, including family restaurants like Martins’s and Rego’s, which don’t have corporate backing to offer perks.

“Another byproduct of the hospitality environment is increased hours, and the industry needs to recognize work/life balance,” Young says. “We’re in the tail end of a pandemic, there is a shortage of employees, and these sites really need [our students].”

Employers as well as job seekers are taking advantage of RIHA’s job board, which has seen a surge in interest this year, Venturini says. It is overflowing with available jobs of all types and pay scales, but those positions, especially the seasonal ones, may not exist this fall when the additional $300 weekly Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefits expire September 4. 

“A lot of people are milking the stimulus payments and unemployment, and are letting this be their last summer of fun before they go back to work. Once fall and winter come, a lot of people will be looking for work, but it won’t be there, and customer demand won’t be there,” Rego says. “It could be a problem, where restaurants just don’t exist anymore.”

Diners Need Patience

While ripple effects permeate communities, restaurateurs remain dedicated and hopeful that this too shall pass. Martins and Rego are sustaining their businesses, they say, but would rather have sufficient staff in order to open fully and provide guests the experience they deserve. 

“Guests aren’t going to be terribly empathetic, and I wouldn’t expect them to be. They are paying for an experience, and they might have to wait a little longer, or encounter some tired employees,” Riley admits. “But everybody has to push it now, work more overtime than we normally would. We have great employees, and we are putting a lot more pressure on them. And I worry about that. I worry about their well-being and happiness because we don’t want to lose them.”