Businesses looking to hire employees as restrictions lift face difficulties

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) The owner of Grace Boutique and Nacho Bizness on Alvarado Street in Monterey tells KION it has been interesting to see the dichotomy between hiring for her restaurant and her retail shop.

On one hand, finding food workers has been relatively easy, but for retail, it's a different story.

"Now Hiring" signs were plastered all around businesses on Alvarado Street on Friday. It was found mostly on larger chains' stores, but local restaurants are also looking for help.

While none were willing to go on camera for KION on Friday, the businesses our reporter spoke with say hiring workers has been a challenge. The owner of Grace Boutique says she has been hearing from fellow entrepreneurs that potential employees are looking for higher wages than before in some cases.

Many old staff have also left the area to look for work elsewhere. She also says some could be hesitant to work right now because of COVID-19 concerns, and childcare remains tough for many families.

According to new state data, California added about 62,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry in just the last month. That is the most by far for any state industry.

Here locally, numbers released on Friday show Monterey County's unemployment rate dropped from 10.4 percent in March to 8.6 percent now. That is about 8.1 percent to 7.7 in Santa Cruz County and just about the same in San Benito County.

Jobs on indeed.com within a 25 mile radius of Monterey number close to 5,000. Most look to be in the food, hospitality and retail industries.

People who get unemployment benefits right now are receiving an extra 300 bucks a week from the feds because of the pandemic. 22 states have said they are going to end those sorts of payouts, often claiming it incentivizes people not to work. California will not.

The governor's new spending proposal will offer 12 billion dollars in direct payments to most adults and pay off other rent and utility bills.