Monday s Afternoon Update | 5/10/2021
Florida s hospitality industry: Employers need workers. Workers need jobs. What s the problem?
Evans Philias of Hollywood is eager to get back to work. He was furloughed in March 2020 after seven years with Starbucks at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Matthew Slaine, the CEO of Quality Restaurant Group, has the opposite problem. QRG owns more than 350 Pizza Huts, Sonic Drive-Ins, Arby s and Moe’s Southwest Grills that need workers just like Philias. In fact, the company needs almost 1,500 of them in Florida alone.Despite a high demand for workers, and the fact that Florida s unemployment rate in the hospitality industry is still 24% above pre-pandemic lows, employers and employees cannot seem to come together. More from the Palm Beach Post.