Business

Triangle moving company struggles to find employees, even after raising wages

As the country rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic, more businesses are reopening and looking for workers. The virus is quickly receding as more than 50% of North Carolinians are fully vaccinated.

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By
Sloane Heffernan
, WRAL reporter/anchor; Maggie Brown, WRAL multiplatform producer

As the country rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic, more businesses are reopening and looking for workers. The virus is quickly receding as 50% of North Carolinians are fully vaccinated.

While businesses try to suffice for surging customer demand, they are struggling to find workers and supplies fast enough.

Danny Wilson, owner of Movin' on Movers, said that, in his 38 years in business, he has never had such a hard time finding people to work.

"Last November, early December. we increased our starting pay by about 25%," he said. "That was pretty significant, which is putting us closer to $15 to $16 an hour with no experience."

Many large chains, including Amazon, Walmart, Costco and Chipotle have begun raising pay to attract more workers.

Wilson is looking at trying to hire 15 more people in the next 30 days.

"Thirty-five years of doing this, I've never had it so difficult to find people," Wilson said.

Employers last month added 559,000 jobs on top of 278,000 in April. In a normal year, those numbers would be healthy, the Associated Press reports. But since job postings are at a record-high, those numbers were lower than expected.

Raleigh is ranked among the fastest-growing metros in the nation, according to research done by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wake County is adding, on average, 64 people to the population every day, according to the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

"With the housing boom as hot as it is, particularly in this area," Wilson said. "I’m booking two months in advance and we’re turning away probably twice as many jobs as what were able to perform because of the challenges of finding people"

Paul Doyle, a new homeowner, said it's been difficult to find people to help them move out.

"Here we are [closing] the third week of June, potentially not being able to move until July," he said. It costs about $800 on average to move out of a two-bedroom apartment in the Triangle.

Experts say that people are posting jobs faster than applicants can respond. Some families still have children at home, with no child care options available to them. A large number of people are suffering from health issues related to coronavirus. Others are concerned about the safety of their children, who are not yet eligible to get vaccinated. As parents enter back into the workforce, they have to weigh their risk of exposure.

It's predicted that the shortage in workers will eventually lift, and the economy will continue to grow again.

What role do unemployment benefits play?

Wilson said that he believes that federal unemployment benefits are the reason he isn't able to find employees.

"It seems like the biggest reason is the fact that the government is paying people to stay home, making it very difficult for people to go out and find people," he said.

Republican lawmakers across the country are blaming unemployment benefits on why people are not yet back at work. Economists and researchers suggest that there are more complex reasons why people aren't returning to the workforce as quickly as anticipated. Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that unemployment benefits don't hold people back from finding a job.
North Carolina House lawmakers have passed a bill that would remove the state from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program.

Senate Bill 116 faces a final vote in the Senate before heading to Gov. Roy Cooper. If it becomes law, North Carolina would join 25 other states that have also canceled their benefits early.

Withdrawing from the program early would mean the loss of around $500 million in federal aid by the program's scheduled end Sept. 6.

She says the bill to end extra unemployment benefits would take money out of North Carolina's economy, money those collecting those benefits are now spending to spur local business growth.

When extra benefits end nationwide in September, Marinescu expects another surge of people looking for work.

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