The best one is retired people getting checks because due to covid they can't go to work.

Re unemployment insurance, the people criticizing stimulus money for Americans are the same ones saying more help should be given to Americans than to foreign governments.

Totally disagree. Restaurants and other businesses are short of help all over only because of the unemployment benefits being paid. Do you really think that a bloated federal government run by free spending politicians is going to check up on those receiving benefits to make sure they are "out looking for a job"? Of course not. Many of them will not be happy until everyone in this country is on welfare.

I've been reading up on this after St. John's Seafood stopped opening for lunch - they are dinner only now. They stated this is because they cannot find enough workers. In the same center Pho Village had one worker taking orders who told me he was exhausted and asked to me if I knew anyone who wanted a job. It is sad. Also, the two sit down restaurants I have visited recently had what I think was service by non-citizens (I feel for those seeking a better life, despite thinking immigration should be for those who are legal, so this is not meant to be a mean comment - and yes, I know some got recent stimulus, but they do not get unemployment so need to work to live.)

Anyway...WSJ reported two things (1) Some people still will not return to jobs out of Covid-fear (2) Many restaurant workers found different jobs when they were laid off during the pandemic.

It rather surprised me that WSJ failed to mention how lucrative unemployment insurance is. According to my understanding, all one must do is state they were "looking for work" and state places they say they sought jobs to continue on it. So, I think high unemployment benefits, even as the nation re-opens, is a reason.

I have begun calling to confirm restaurants are open before going.

Complain complain complain is that all your seniors ever do, you're retired take a few minutes and relax while waiting for your ice cream. Don't you know people don't want to work if they're making an extra $300 a week by not working. We've seen two Burger King's, two little caesars, and a Wendy's close up so far because nobody wants to work and management has been so frustrated they just closed the places simply because there're not making any money anyway

Service help
 

Haven't you noticed almost any restaurant yiu go to is under staffed. They either block off tables to keep service up to par or the servers have too many tables and service suffers. The high unemployment benefits may be the cause.

I was told by the guy directing drive-thru traffic in the McDonalds (across from Wal-mart) that the restaurant makes more money with just the drive-through open. Cuts way back on their over-head costs of having the dining room open.

Why isn't that guy the president of McDonald's? He should have told them that 66 years ago.

Sorry, the numbers disagree
 

Sumter county has low unemployment at this time. Too many old people want too many retail and restaurant workers leads to employers needing more workers than the local area can provide.
Sumter County, FL Unemployment Rate

Jeez make your own sandwiches - they taste much better!

You are absolutely correct! Much easier to live off the government than show up every day for job.

Most of these people also get extended benefits from the Federal Government.
Your comments might have been true 50 years ago.

The last time we were at Culver's, we went through the drive-thru for 2 turtle sundaes. They gave us a # to wait in line (for ice cream???). We waited 15 mins and still no ice cream. Then I went back inside to talk to the manager who looked to be about 15. He questioned the girl making sundaes. She said she sent 2 turtle sundaes to the window. He asked the guy at the window what he did with the 2 turtles. That guy said he "gave them to someone in a car." Ironically, the receipt he gave me along with the # was charged to my card, but was for another order (fortunately, it was less than our 2 turtle sundaes). So, not only did someone else get our sundaes and not question it, but someone else was charged for them and didn't question it. The manager personally made our sundaes, but shrugged the whole thing off and walked away. This is the kind of work ethic you get with hiring high school kids and not hold them accountable for their actions. I fear we'll see this more and more in the coming days, weeks, months.........

Did it ever occur to many of you , that lots of young people worry about Covid and exposing there families , young children , older parents. We see many high earning professionals, athletes and retired people who have dropped out of socializing or going into work,so why do you object to a minimum wage earner staying away as long as he can . Let us not forget that it took many of these people a long time to start collecting and the hardships that came with it . We should also remember even before Covid there were shortages of help , it’s no different in any high season area, Cape Cod in the summer , ski places in northern New England. I realize that most of you on here worked harder, never complained , always did the right thing , to sum it all up ( YOU WERE PERFECT) but have a little empathy for those not as PERFECT

That was the case when I went-no explanation

People don’t want to work. We were at Cracker Barrel the other day and service was very slow. Our server was moving as fast as she could. When she came to our table she apologized and said that they were way under staffed.

Government "help."
 

Same thing last fall at Bob Evans and others. When the GOVERNMENT pays people to not work, when work is available, are they helping or causing harm? What do you suppose their motive is?

Hopefully, this is sarcasm...:ohdear:

As Yogi Berra said, “nobody goes there anymore because it’s too busy. “

This happen to me there. I got in drive thru around 6, I saw a cleaning van figure inside close to be clean and had few cars ahead of me for drive thru. Saw a guy come out lock door. Waiting a long time and finally two ladies in golf cart came up and told us it was closed! The guy who locked the door should of came up and told all the cars in line they were closed! They should of put a sign on drive thru menu that place was close.
They needed to be more considerate to their customers even if they are short with employees. Not our fault. Just not them, there are other restaurants been rude and ugly to their customers. KFC of 441 has a rude manager. Stress is very high. Not able to hire people because they are getting more unemployment and pay is low.

Culvers
 

You are extremely naïve or just plain stupid, if you don't understand the implications of extended and increased unemployment benefits. The people can stay on unemployment if they feel unsafe to go back to work, and on top of that, they received a bonus that might come close to doubling their pay! No it is not a local issue, it is a federal government mandate so Florida just can't end it. Yes it is political because we have morons running the system. This is here until 2024 and maybe longer.

That tells me the employers aren’t paying a living wage.

I know of family members one is a 50ish year old with 3 sons. He has held 2 full time jobs for years due to some circumstances ( that I’m not completely sure of ) he cannot collect any unemployment benefits. Meanwhile his 18 year old niece who worked at Showcase Cinemas was collecting $600 per week for months. Here’s a young woman who never earned anywhere close to $600 per week. Yes the system is flawed, whey work when you can collect more not working. Sad, sad condition we are in but you all know that anyway.

I guess you will see the light a little later than some people. Make more staying home, why work?

What you say IS true, but logically instead of the unemployment payments being too HIGH (using the theory of relativity) could not the restaurant pay be too low. Think about that! Why blame the employee for choosing the correct thing to do from their perspective? Why NOT blame the employer for being too greedy to pay their employees a LIVING wage? The reason that the owners do NOT get blamed is that the restaurant customers do NOT want to pay a higher price for their meals. They expect to be served like kings and queens by servers that are caught in a downward cycle of pay that makes them literally "WAGE SLAVES"!

Better to blame the owners that could easily get employees by simply paying higher wages and forcing ALL the other restaurant owners to raise their menu prices. They would then pass the cost (that they can) onto the public. No restaurant owner wants to be the 1st to do this. They would be kicked out of their good-old-boys club! Sure, the public will complain. But, they would then again be able to get the FULL experience of INDOOR DINING. Which the Villages public feels ENTITLED to.

Probably because most of us worked for “slave wages” until our early twenties. The public tit is loaded at this point and you’ll NEVER get people back off of it. Two children family homes have added to this problem in large part with kids who grow up lacking for nothing and the most chores they’ve ever had were walking the dog and making their beds. This problem isn’t limited to TV alone. States are struggling to find competent tradespeople and manufacturing producers. If businesses are able to hire employees, they walk off the job by noon. They state they don’t want to work that hard. Wait until you see what’s coming down the line, try not to end up in assisted living or a nursing home.

Our administration is ruining businesses by giving people money so they all quit. All businesses are having this issue....

This "bonus" was started in the PREVIOUS administration, last year, as the result of the pandemic causing millions of people to be out of work as a result of closures.

While I agree that we're giving too much, I also acknowledge that this is a unique situation that our PLANET has never experienced before, and the attempts to address the situation began over a year ago, when someone else was running the country.

Someone else running the country wanted to lower the unemployment benefit, Dec. 8, 2020.

Yes and back in the day when you had to walk uphill both ways in 6' snow to milk the cows in the back 90, people didn't have to pay over $100,000 per year if they wanted to be a lawyer when they grew up. In fact, MOST people could afford to go to some kind of secondary school beyond 12th grade, and states had funds with super low interest rates to accommodate those who couldn't afford the cash but whose parents could co-sign for the long-term payback.

Back in the day when minimum wage, combined with 3 roommates, COULD support 4 adults living in a 2-bedroom walkup and allow them to pay all the bills and still have a few coins to toss in the bank. Back in the day, people didn't automatically assume that "independent living" had to mean "owning a nice house in a nice neighborhood and 2 cars." It could mean "renting a modest apartment in a neighborhood that had public transportation to work".

Sadly, many parents of today have taught their children differently. Sadly, those parents were taught by THEIR parents to do things differently. But who were those grandparents? Oh yea - that's right. It's US. And by US I mean people who are currently over 60, who have children, who have children. That wouldn't be me personally since I don't have kids.

Actually, I did grow up on an 80 acre dairy farm, not 90, carried more 5 gallon buckets of milk to be lifted and poured into the strainer than the people in the lovely scenario above would ever consider doing. If you want the laundry list of all the work I performed on that farm, let me know. I was babysitting for neighbors from the age of 12, worked as a “mother’s helper” in the summer for two years beginning in seventh grade for $15./wk with a day off every other weekend. Our larger family couldn’t afford college back then but we all grew up hardworking, successful and failure wasn’t an option. I personally believe the high school education back then was almost the equivalent of many college educations now. By the way, our children had jobs starting at age 15.

As a general statement about restaurants and their patrons - US Americans are the world's leading restaurant-goers - France is 2nd. I do NOT know WHY this is true, but I would be interested in comments. There is probably a historical component to it and possibly a psychological component to it? Possibly being the country with the highest GNP seems to give us ENTITLEMENT to the "dining-out" experience? Scandinavian countries do not engage in the sport of "eating-out" nearly as much as US Americans. WE are the outlier among the 1st world countries.

With reference to employee wages - since 1975 the average US employee has received NO (zero) wage increases to this date - if you take inflation ( or expressed in constant dollars) into consideration. It has been quite different for employers who on average have done quite well - even currently creating in the US the highest wealth gap for all of the 1st world countries! Interestingly, Jeff Besos and Elon Musk together have more WEALTH than the bottom 40% of US citizens. Is that FAIR? Is that Christian? Is that even sustainable?

Let's see we are paying unemployed and extra 300 a week till memorial day

I don’t know why you threw Christian in there as I don’t believe that applies to either of their philosophies and if you think they are too rich, don’t employ their handiwork. Just say “no” is an option.

The eating out bit, watch the drive through restaurants in the evening. You can see Dad or Mom or both driving through with their loaded car seats or middle schoolers or teenagers in the back. There isn't much cooking going on anymore, healthy or otherwise.

Thanks for the empathy! It helps deal with the problem. It makes it all crystal clear.

I believe in capitalism, so I think the wealth gap is fair. And, the highest income earners pay almost all of the Federal income tax, with the bottom half paying little or no Federal income tax.

Many of the fast food restaurants on 466 and 441 have help wanted signs in the window and many have drive thru only. Even The Club rehab at Mulberry has a sign outside saying help wanted. Most of the rehabs and hospitals in Sumter, Lake and Marion Counties are begging for help and calling former employees to come back offering sign on bonuses.

Non-citizens working in TV land is NOT a good idea. If the US absorbs too many "non-citizens" from 3rd world countries, then the US will eventually become a 3rd world country. It would be patriotic for restaurant patrons to BOYCOTT restaurants that employ "non citizens". The local police should check citizenship and begin deportation procedures. And The Village residents should push their local leaders to ensure this policy. A restaurant patron needs to give up an inside seat for a burger to prevent the crumbling apart of their country that helped them get a good retirement. Have some patriotism for citizens not "non-citizens".

I agree, but only 8 states require private employers to use E-verify to confirm that an employee is eligible to work. Florida is not one of them. E-verify can instantly verify a person's eligibility to work, but the restaurant industry is totally opposed to using it. And, local law enforcement has no authority to check citizenship or to deport anyone.

That’s the situation everywhere. Is it Culver’s fault just like all the other businesses in the area that they can’t get help when people are sitting at home collecting unemployment from the government which pays more to people than going to work? People when return to work when the government stops paying them to stay home.