Elmo’s Diner sign (Photo credit Ira Wilder/UNC Media Hub)

Ira Wilder via UNC Media Hub

Restaurant employment in Durham reached its pre-pandemic level in December, according to data from the N.C. Department of Commerce, but restaurateurs continue to suffer from a significant labor shortage.

Many blame the shortage on the swiftly growing restaurant economy combined with the pandemic’s effects on the workforce.  

Jon DuBose, a senior territory manager at U.S. Foods and a 28-year veteran of the Durham food industry, sold $13 million in groceries to 32 restaurants in the Triangle last year, his busiest year yet.

“We’re booming right now. Business is good,” he said.

This boom is nothing new. Durham’s restaurant scene has been expanding steadily for more than a decade, especially since the pandemic. Durham had 692 restaurants open at any time during 2023, up from 507 in 2019, according to inspection data from the Durham County Department of Public Health. That’s a 36.5% increase for which there has been virtually no uptick in the number of people working at these restaurants.  

Hiring enough help continues to be the biggest challenge facing local restaurants, DuBose said. During the pandemic, Durham restaurants lost nearly half of their workers, hitting a low in April of 2020, immediately after the initial lockdowns.

Despite this steady climb in people returning to food service work, restaurants have now struggled with staffing for nearly four years. And while employment numbers reached pre-pandemic levels, there are more jobs at more restaurants to fill.

DuBose said every single one of his customers could use more staff. Despite this challenge, many restaurant professionals are happy to see the restaurant scene thriving.

“It’s a wonderful problem for an industry to have, because it means we have growing pains,”  said Karina Stong, director of operations at restaurant group Zweli’s Inc.

Some restaurants, such as Elmo’s Diner, have eliminated night shifts to account for the missing labor force. The Ninth Street restaurant employs only 50 employees compared to 100 before the pandemic. Fewer people means more work for the waiters and chefs still there, Mark Schueler, co-owner of the diner, said in a statement.

Danielle Rios, owner of Blue Corn Cafe, said she works 80 hours a week so her restaurant can survive. The restaurant turns over more tables now with fewer employees than before the pandemic, so putting in “triple the work” herself is the only way the business can survive.

“I love my business,” she said. “My husband and I have been here a long time. But there are days you go home and you're like, ‘Oh my gosh. Can I do this much longer?’”

She’s not alone. DuBose said most owners and managers are no longer just in the office answering phones and making shift schedules. They’re making deliveries, waiting tables and washing dishes. The young workforce they used to hire to do these jobs is simply disappearing.

Paige Ouimet, a professor at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School who studies the American labor force, said it’s more likely now than ever before for any American to be in retirement instead of in the workforce.

“For the same total population size, we have fewer potential workers,” Ouimet said. “This is really important. I mean, what we're seeing is basically a 1.5% loss in our labor force.”

That impacts all industries, not just restaurants, making this struggle to hire and retain employees far from unique.

Ouimet calls this 1.5% loss in the labor force “huge” for the economy overall. It is even more important when you consider Durham’s size and the fact that the local 2.8% unemployment rate means there are very few people looking for jobs who don’t already have one.

Ouimet explained the pandemic is largely responsible for the loss in labor. The pandemic prompted early retirements, halted immigration that restaurants relied on for decades and shifted many workers to other (often remote) industries.

Without going to work, people had time to ask themselves if they were on the right career path, and for many restaurant employees, the answer to that question was ‘no,’ Ouimet said.

Others have a less gentle assessment.

Rios said this problem is even further exacerbated because the people who are hireable now don't do the same amount of work older generations once did.

“I think people got lazy and quit working. That's my honest opinion,” DuBose said.

Stong thinks a lot of restaurant workers got used to the flexible hours of the gig economy — driving rideshares and delivering groceries — amid pandemic layoffs. She’s hopeful the restaurant industry’s growth in Durham breathes life back into the labor force.

“People will become passionate about it again and realize it's not just a survival industry,” Stong said. “It’s not just a survival child. It's a great industry to be a part of.” Still, as she interviews employees for Zweli’s upcoming expansion into Brightleaf Square, Stong said she is happy when candidates show up for interviews on time.