BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The holiday season has arrived, and with it comes the time for stores to hire on holiday workers but this year those seasonal jobs are looking more like a year-round need.
Like last year where we saw a big need for truck drivers and delivery services to meet the high demand of online shoppers, we’re still seeing the same problem on top of the need for employees to physically be in stores also. Shoppers are opening their wallets about as much as they were before the pandemic. According to the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC), the demand for the items you’re buying is expected to increase to the point it was back in 2019.
“Now, the issue is there are a lot of hiccups in the economy right now in terms of open jobs and supply chain issues,” said Andrew Fitzgerald with BRAC.
With everyone mostly shopping online during the pandemic, the need for truck drivers soared. That problem still hasn’t gone away. And it’s likely now that businesses are open again, people won’t be as patient to wait for their packages.
“We do still have a real need for truck drivers both locally and nationally. But one thing is there are also a lot of openings in retail here in the Baton Rouge region, so people are having trouble staffing their stores as well,” continued Fitzgerald.
Right now, the biggest issue for Baton Rouge and many places around the country is that there are more jobs available than there are people looking for a job.
“We have many more job openings, about 29,000 or 30,000, in the Baton Rouge region than we do unemployed people, 17,000. So, that’s why these businesses are having trouble not only filling their positions but they have to pay their people more because they’re competing so much harder for the exact same talent,” explained Fitzgerald.
“Our Labor Force participation rate fell during the pandemic,” said US Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana. “You would expect it to but it hasn’t come back.”
Kennedy said part of the problem is the state continuing to provide unemployment benefits to those who can work but are choosing not to.
“Those who can work should work. All of these social programs on which we spend well over a trillion dollars a year were meant to be bridges, not parking lots,” added Kennedy.
But according to BRAC, the state of the job market could have a silver lining.
“It’s not great if you’re a consumer because of all the inflation caused by supply chain issues and the lack of products out there. It’s great if you’re a young person looking for work, especially if you’re unskilled because these jobs that previously paid $9 or $10 an hour are now paying $13 to $14 with higher benefits, so it’s good for them. The problem is everything they want to buy with new $12, $13, $14 an hour is now proportionately more expensive,” said Fitzgerald.
To see what jobs are available in your area you can visit https://www.indeed.com/ or https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm.
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