As businesses begin a phased return to normal in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, another issue has emerged — getting people to come back to work.
Tom Harrington, MSU Extension Agent for Jefferson County and project manager Jefferson Local Development Corporation, said he’s seeing help wanted signs up, particularly in Whitehall, and businesses are saying it’s hard to find employees.
“I’m hearing all the time that they can’t find help,” he said.
The issue was discussed Thursday at a Jefferson Community Economic Forum hosted by the Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Council of Butte.
John Kreis, President with the Whitehall Chamber of Commerce, said he’s asked a few businesses about this and has been told that people are making more money on unemployment and staying home than if they were to come back to work.
“They’re at their wits end,” he said of those employers, adding that the unemployment benefits apparently outstrip what the businesses were able to pay.
Boulder Hot Springs General Manager Kerri Kumasaka said she’s having the same problem.
Most of her workers are part-time and some have indicated that they want fewer hours in order to keep their unemployment benefits, said Kumasaka.
“It’s been frustrating,” she said, adding that the $600 a week being provided to laid-off workers due to COVID-19 is a disincentive.
Some were hoping the resort would open later rather than sooner, said Kumasaka, but added that Boulder Hot Springs remains viable and she’s glad they reopened on May 22.
Dave Simac, owner of Chubby’s Bar and Grill in Clancy, said all his workers have returned, although many can continue to get partial unemployment benefits based on the number of hours they work.
Chris Rehor, owner of the Montana City Grill and Saloon, said he’s had two employees who likely haven’t returned out of concerns about the virus, and one who is likely resisting due to the expanded unemployment benefits. The remaining 65 employees at both his restaurant and hotel, the Elkhorn Mountain Inn have returned, he said.
Many of those are already working other jobs too, said Rehor.
The federal CARES Act, passed in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, expanded unemployment benefits, and individuals also received a one-time payout of $1,200 in April. The CARES Act provides an additional $600 a week as an emergency increase, called the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, for those who are collecting regular unemployment or pandemic unemployment assistance benefits. Those benefits expire at the end of July, unless continued by Congress.
Kumasaka wonders if the federal government was trying to be fair across the country when it set the $600 rate, but the cost of living in Montana is lower than on the east or west coast, for example.
Jefferson County’s unemployment rate for April was 9.5%, or 509 individuals out of a total labor force of 5,351, according to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.
Last year, the rate of unemployment in Jefferson County was 3%.
The seasonally adjusted state rate was 11.3% for Montana. Last year, it was 3.6%.
