Staffing expert says current pay rates used to keep employees are “not sustainable”

Many businesses are looking to hire and some have went to lengths to hire.

The latest report from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services showed that about 6,800 less Ohioans had applied overall for unemployment benefits.

Emily Mendenhall serves as the Vice President of the Oregon District Business Association and said knows other businesses have been impacted heavily by the lack of workers during the pandemic.

“We have heard of businesses in our community cutting hours,” Mendenhall said.

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Some businesses also changed their days of operation and closed on Monday and Tuesday. Mendenhall said she considered that at Lilly’s, the restaurant she owns.

Mendenhall told News Center 7′s Michael Gordon that while she feels lucky to have a full staff, it did come at a cost.

“We gave substantial raises to entice good talent to come back and I have some nervousness about when we got to the slow months,” Emily Mendenhall, owner of Lilly’s Restaurant, said.

Doug Barry, President of Barrystaff, an employment staffing agency, said the current pay rates are “not sustainable for the long term” and people will see signs of that correction.

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“I think we are going to see a market correction for rates,” Barry said.

Barry said that the correction means server pay will be lower in the next six to eight months, as shown by the number of people seeking out his company to help find a jobs.

“Now we are at about 40 to 45 people a week and it is up a little bit over the past month or so by maybe 10 or 15 people a week,” Barry said.

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