SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – Lots of jobs and not enough people to fill: It’s a growing crisis affecting Hostess City, Peach State and the entire country, according to Georgia’s Labor Commissioner.
“You get paid, let’s say $ 15 an hour, $ 600 a week – that’s 40 hours a week. I mean why come to work? It pays your bills, ”explained Chris Emerick, the owner of Two Cracked Eggs Cafe.
Many local Savannah businesses say there is no incentive to work when you can make more money out of unemployment.
“In many cases you can see that someone earns twice as much from unemployment. In some other cases, we have also seen people tripling or quadrupling, especially people offering seasonal jobs, ”said Georgian Labor Ministry Commissioner Mark Butler as he described the crippling reality that many face.
Butler said stimulus payments and unemployment benefits are forcing local businesses to raise their hourly wages and provide incentives to get the workers they say are not applying.
“When it’s all over and a lot more automation is invested, a lot of business practices that can do with fewer people can change,” he added.
The labor commissioner said companies are seeing a major disruption in the supply chain.
“You see prices go up, you see companies can’t open because they aren’t adequately staffed – especially when we’re talking about the restaurant industry,” said Butler. “That is already bad. This is going to get worse.
“I think Washington needs to take the breaks and look at some of these guidelines to see if they are doing more harm than good right now.”
If you are unemployed, leaders say now is the time to get back into work.
“You could really change your life because this could be your chance to take a big leap in long-term change,” added Butler.
He says the unemployment benefit only makes things worse and encourages federal officials to forego extending additional payments if they end in September.
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