DAYTON — Local restaurants are saying they are seeing more and more customers, but many businesses can’t say the same about workers.
“We’ve been gradually gaining customers back ... it’s a slow and study kind of rise back,” Liz Valenti, executive chef of Wheat Penny Oven and Bar said. We’re only open five days a week still as opposed to seven days but we’re hanging in there and we’re just being optimistic that the pandemic is truly over.”
According to the bureau of labor statistics, the unemployment rate for the month of May was at 3.6 percent, which is 2.2 percentage points lower than the same time last year.
“Staffing is tough right now. A lot of people are out of work but a lot of people are not wanting to come back to hospitality. I think the pandemic has taught them some lessons and I think the industry has lost a lot of permanent workers to the pandemic,” Valenti said.
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Many restaurants, like Valenti’s, are having to adjust their hours to keep up with staffing shortages.
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