SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The National Federation of Independent Business’s latest job report shows 42% of employers are having trouble filling open positions. Restaurant owners in Sacramento are seeing those difficulties first hand.
Tokiko Sawada co-owns Binchoyoki. It’s only open for take-out right now, but she’s planning to start in-person dining for the first time since the pandemic started.
“We need to hire more servers, more prep cooks, more line cooks,” Sawada said. “Putting an ad on craigslist before, you put an ad on and get like 20 applications in one day.”
She said now she’s seeing five or less within a week.
“Staffing has been more than an issue. If we can’t get enough staffing, we can’t reopen,” Sawada said.
Sam’s Hof Brau, also in Sacramento, is facing a similar issue. Sunday, it put up a Facebook post notifying customers that it would have to close 2 days out of the week until it can find more employees.
“We don’t have the number of people that we normally would have had pre-COVID to be able to handle all of the different ways that we serve customers right now,” Director of Operations Mickey Schlesinger said.
“Looking to staff up and train in the right way that will be able to resume serving customers in the way they’ve been accustomed to for years,” he said. “When we feel like we have enough new hires that have come in, they’re trained properly, and all that stuff, we will be open seven days a week as soon as we can.”
ABC10 asked Sacramento City Councilman Eric Guerra about what restaurant owners should do in this situation. He suggested the Sac Works jobs website that can connect employers with qualified employees and also has job listings.
If you’re interested in applying for a job at Bichoyoki, send a resume to info@bichoyoki.com. To apply for a job at Sam’s Hoff Brau email info@orginalsamshofbrau.com
