Sweetened U.S. unemployment benefits are winding down, fueling hopes among restaurants that the employees who left the workforce during the pandemic will start coming back. There’s unlikely to be a stampede, however.
While companies are dangling higher wages, sign-on bonuses and other perks to entice new hires, their efforts are being outweighed by renewed Covid-19 concerns as the delta variant spreads. Other difficulties include a persistent lack of child-care options for parents and the industry’s less-than-stellar reputation among workers.
