Manitoba lost jobs in October; foodservice and hospitality industries impacted

WINNIPEG -

Manitoba lost jobs in October, with 3,100 fewer Manitobans employed last month, according to the latest federal jobs report.

Major losses were seen in the accommodations and food services sector – which includes hotels along with restaurant and dining establishments – with 3,900 fewer jobs reported in the industry last month, the steepest drop of any sector.

“In this time and age of trying to re-staff our operations, we’re looking for pretty much anyone,” said Shaun Jeffrey, CEO of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

Jeffrey said part of the problem is apprehension, as prospective employees may not want to take a job in a sector so heavily impacted by past lockdowns and pandemic-related restrictions.

“When you’re in an industry that’s been in lockdown three times, there is a lot of uncertainty there, and that uncertainty doesn’t go away now that we’re open,” Jeffrey said.

Hotels in Manitoba are also finding it difficult to fill positions for similar reasons.

“When things were changing, and you don’t know whether you’re going to get your shifts, I’m sure it causes many to ponder, ‘maybe I should be looking at something else?’” said Scott Jocelyn, president and CEO of the Manitoba Hotel Association.

All manner of positions need to be filled in hotels across Manitoba, said Jocelyn, particularly for back-of-house and food preparation jobs.

“We need people to be manning those stations and if we don’t have people, it makes it incredibly difficult for us to operate to the level we want to operate at,” he said.

To deal with the labour shortage, the Manitoba Hotel Association is hosting its first-ever virtual job fair.

Unemployment in Manitoba remained steady at 5.8 per cent from September to October, the lowest among all provinces. The unemployment rate for Manitobans aged 15-24, however, is far higher, at 9% and 8.2% for men and women, respectively.

That is an age group that tends to be employed in the foodservice and hospitality sector, said Philippe Cyrenne, professor of economics at the University of Winnipeg, and pandemic disruptions may be keeping them away.

“It’s gone through quite a turbulent period, and I think there’s a bit of a ‘discouraged worker’ effect that’s taking place,” Cyrenne said.

Cyrenne adds that it may take time for people to feel comfortable returning to foodservice establishments as a workplace, while some may not go back at all.

“People’s habits change and whether they’re going to go back to what they were doing previously to the pandemic is a bit of an unknown.”

Manitoba businesses are also dealing with changes among customer habits.

DIY Craft Bar, a space to do some crafting while enjoying a beverage, opened in August 2019 and had to deal with multiple lockdowns.

However, even now that customers can come back inside, the bar’s owners are finding business isn’t quite the same.

“People aren’t coming out nearly as much as they used to,” said Sheri Doyle, who owns DIY Craft Bar with her husband Clifton. “We can’t get enough customers in to pay the bills so it gave us the tough choice to close our doors.”

DIY Craft Bar will be closing its physical storefront on November 20th, but the business will live on in another format, as Doyle is transitioning the concept into an online “crafts to go” model to meet increased demand for at-home activities among its customers.

“COVID is still here and probably isn’t going away for a long time so we needed to adapt as well.”