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By
06/16/2021
It has only become harder to recruit and retain a workforce in West Marin over the course of the pandemic, business owners and economists say. The decades-long issue is hampering businesses from reaching their full potential, despite a summer boom of tourists who are ready to spend.
Help-wanted ads are getting almost no response. Without a full staff, existing workers are stretched thin, and some businesses have had to cut back on hours. The restaurant industry has been particularly hard hit, and the issue is nationwide.
The Marin Economic Forum launched a business retention and expansion project in late 2019. Following surveys, interviews and economic analyses, the forum published a report in March 2020, days before the Covid-19 crisis took over. The number-one challenge for businesses was hiring, and economists concluded that the resident workforce was not aligned with job demand. The county relies on an imported workforce in the service industry, while higher-wage workers who live in Marin generally commute elsewhere.