Health

The 4 reasons nobody is going back to work despite extra need this holiday season

BOSTON — With the holidays coming up, businesses are going to be looking to hire more people. The problem is they were already struggling to keep staff levels outside of the holidays.

Diane Agoun’s clothing store has been on Newbury Street for 15 years but said this is the hardest she’s ever worked. Like many store owners now hiring, she needs extra employees for the holidays but doesn’t even have the standard staffing.

“I’m working 24/7 because I have two stores. I’m running around, some days I have to close one store because there are no employees,” said Agoun, who owns Soodee. “Now I’m hiring part-time students, and holidays they go back home and spend time, so I don’t even know what to do for the holidays.”

“As of September, there are about 193,000 people that are unemployed in Massachusetts,” said Ryan Kearney of Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “62,000 of them have filed claims just last month.”

Retailers Association of Massachusetts blames four main reasons:

  1. People still receiving unemployment benefits
  2. Older folks concerned about health risks choosing to retire early
  3. A desire for more remote work
  4. And concerns about childcare

“The industry is doing what they can to lure those folks back to work in particular for the big holiday season,” Kearney said. “Our members survey indicated that there’s been an increase in wages about 6.7% on average.

So now employers like Agoun are paying higher while still dealing with lower inventory and higher prices due to inflation. Agoun says even when she gets people interviewing, they’re doing it just to show the government they are searching for work.

“I put advertisements on Indeed and I get a lot of people to come, but after they interview, they disappear,” Agoun said.

One business owner told Boston 25 they called their former employees begging them to come back, but they said they’re not coming back to work unless they pay them cash under the table because they want to keep collecting unemployment benefits.

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