The sign on the front door of Twelve Pine in Peterborough alerts customers to the stark reality of the labor shortage in the Monadnock region. The one page note from owner George Neal states that the Depot Square eatery and market will be temporarily closed that day, but in actuality, Twelve Pine hasn’t been open since the last weekend in August due to inadequate staffing.
“At that point we had all our college students going back to school and high school students going back to school,” Neal said. “And we didn’t have enough full-time employees to run it the way we have for the last 22 years.”
Neal has a certain standard in which he expects Twelve Pine to operate and he had to make a risky decision to close temporarily, cutting off all revenue, while still incurring all the expenses that come with the business.
“We won’t open and damage the brand because of that,” he said.
Rich Lavers, Deputy Commissioner at New Hampshire Employment Security, said the number of employed residents for August were slightly down from the previous month.
Lavers said there are a number of factors taken into consideration, including monthly household and business surveys “but those types of measurements, they’re not precise,” Lavers said.
“They’re not showing the growth that we’ve seen occurring,” Lavers said.
He said in June and July there was a strong return in those employed, but in August it slid back a bit. Lavers said that job postings are up 60 percent, 15,000 a month, from where they were in 2019, “some of that resulting from the unleashed, pent up demand,” for goods and services.
“A lot of this is because sectors are looking to expand and attract good talent,” Lavers said. “It shows how aggressive employers are being.”
Lavers said two age groups have not returned to the job market as much as they were involved prior to the pandemic – older workers, 65-plus and 20 to 29 year olds. Labor participation for both demographics is down by double digit percentages, Lavers said.
He said right now is “a pretty historic opportunity” for both financial and non-financial incentives to return to work. One way NHES is trying to get people back into the workforce is through a series of virtual job fairs, including one for the Monadnock region on Oct. 5 and another on Oct. 19 in conjunction with Franklin Pierce University.
Lavers said eventually people will have to get back to work.
“They’re going to come back in and they’re going to ease the dynamic between supply and demand,” he said.
Tim Steele, founder and CEO of Microspec in Peterborough, said the company is looking to hire 10 to 20 people.
“We’ve needed people all year long and we’re just not getting people coming in to apply for jobs,” Steele said. He added there used to be a backlog of potential candidates but now only a couple applications are coming in each month.
Tony Panagiotes, owner of the Peterborough Pizza Barn, said he lost a number of staff members because of coronavirus. And right now, he just can’t seem to get anyone to apply even with help wanted signs outside the door.
“Never in 50 years,” Panagiotes said has he had an issue like this finding staff.
MilliporeSigma is looking to fill 275 positions at its Jaffrey facility, said MilliporeSigma Spokesperson Tom Layman.
“The pandemic has certainly presented challenges for hiring and recruiting during the last year-plus, like many other industries across the country,” Layman said. During the last few months, Layman said applications have been steadily climbing and there have been hires made for critical positions.
He said the company has prioritized creating ways to engage with and educate the community about the jobs available, including job fairs with a virtual fair upcoming on Sept. 29 and an onsite career fair in Lowell Oct. 13, with both events focusing on hiring for the Jaffrey facility. Layman said they also began extending the search for applicants outside of New Hampshire and New England, with a program called Move with MilliporeSigma, and so far, have seen some hires.
Bill Peterson, Vice President Human Resources at Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. in Bennington, said on any given day he’s looking for a half dozen people. He is seeing more applications than earlier this year, but it’s not always resulting in new hires. In one week, Peterson had eight potential employees confirm interviews and then not show up. Just two weeks ago he made an offer and that person simply stopped responding to communications.
“Our business has actually increased and we’re adding additional people,” he said. “I’d gladly add the additional positions if I had people to fill them.”
Neal said that he typically employs 15 full and part time employees. This summer he was able to make it work with about 10. When the end of August rolled around, he had three full time and two part time adults and just two part time students. In his eyes, the decision to close was necessary.
Neal said he has posted “on just about every job site you can find on the internet.” Over the last three weeks, he has made five new hires, but still needs to make at least three more in order to reopen. He said the quest to find employees has turned into his full time job.
“What I’ve found is that it takes a lot of effort to make a good contact with a potential new staff member,” Neal said. “I’ve just got to stay on top of it like I was looking for a job.”
He said it has been a challenge to get people to participate in interviews, which is why he has to be what he calls a responsive employer.
“It’s almost like opening a new restaurant,” Neal said.
Peter Robinson, owner of Roy’s Market and Maggie’s in Peterborough, said he is looking to hire one full time and two part time employees. In an effort to not burn out his current employees, Robinson made the decision to close both stores on Sundays and modify hours.
“I’d like to be open more hours,” he said. “Especially with all the restaurants who are closed. There are days you’re hard pressed to find something that’s open.”
He said customers have been understanding.
“They’re seeing the same thing elsewhere,” Robinson said. “It’s a national problem.”
His biggest question? “Where did all the people go?” From January to June he was unable to hire anyone, but has since made a couple part time hires. And with everyone seemingly looking for help, it’s a difficult arena to be in.
“It shows the region has an employment issue and how does it get resolved?” Robinson said.
“Employers across all sectors are really going to aggressive lengths to attract workforce,” Lavers said, including sign on bonuses and increased starting wages. “You see it’s very much a job seeker market across all sectors. There’s a lot of competition among employers.”
Lavers added that earnings were up 12 percent in August.
Peterson said a raise in starting pay has occurred, but that is determined by the union contract. Still, it hasn’t been this high and he knows it’s because of the demand for workers.
Layman said to bring in applicants, MilliporeSigma has increased starting pay for manufacturing roles and added sign on bonuses for more difficult to fill night and weekend shifts. They’ve also implemented market adjustments for hourly roles.
“We continue to prioritize recruiting and are actively looking for candidates for our evenings, overnight and weekend shifts, which include very competitive shift differentials and hiring bonuses for overnight,” Layman said.
Steele said in an effort to appeal to job seekers, Microspec has raised its entry level pay by $2 to $3 an hour. He’s even considered going outside to country to find workers, but the lack of public transportation and housing in the region makes that difficult.
Not only has Steele had to raise wages for prospective employees, but they have also done so for current employees in both manufacturing and management.
“It hasn’t helped (bring people in), but it has helped keep people here,” Steele said. He is also offering sign on and referral bonuses.
Even though Twelve Pine has been closed, Neal said expenses like rent, insurance and utilities have remained and it was a risky financial decision to not be open and have zero revenue coming through the door.
“Essentially it’s a risk-reward,” Neal said. He said he has had many conversations with customers about the current situation and for the most part people understand.
“We’re all short staffed right now, everywhere you go,” Neal said. “Everybody’s looking, everybody’s in need.”
Even before closing down, Neal was forced to cut hours to make do with the staff he had. Because of that, sales were down 45 percent from 2019.
Panagiotes said the reduction in staff forced him to go from six days a week to just three, opening only Thursday through Saturday. His brother Art, also an owner in the business, was trying to retire but has been forced to come back.
Not only are they open half the time, but they have been unable to reopen their dining room because he simply doesn’t have enough staff.
“We closed it originally because of COVID but now it takes another person to sanitize, to keep it clean and take orders,” Panagiotes said.
Thankfully for Panagiotes, they have been busy the days they are open, which helps pay the bills.
“We’re just going day to day, week to week,” he said.
Robinson said he is one of the lucky ones to keep things going. But it hasn’t come without some adjustments.
He closed Little Roy’s due to COVID and said that is the main reason it is still that way, but if the pandemic had passed it would probably still be closed.
“As I speak to you today, I don’t think I could,” Robinson said.
He said for a lot of businesses in the area, the lack of staff is creating quite a bit of financial concern.
“One of the issues that we have for small businesses is that when you’re closed three, four, five days a week that overhead doesn’t change,” he said. “And you have less days to recoup that revenue.”
The staffing shortage as the economy attempts to reach its pre-pandemic levels has extended the economic impact that many businesses are struggling to survive.
“When you start looking at a year and a half, it makes it a challenge for small businesses to absorb that,” Robinson said.
Steele said that the demand for Microspec products has been growing and “our backlog is higher than it’s ever been right now,” and lead times are being pushed out from four weeks to eight to 10. He anticipates it being Microspec’s best year by 25 percent. But at the same time he has to consider his employees’ well-being.
“We can only work them so much without burning them out and burn out happens,” Steele said. Some employees have offered to work overtime and it has helped “but we still can’t keep up.”
And it has caused him to be more selective as to what jobs he takes on “because we don’t have the people to do it.”
There’s also the issue of suppliers having staff shortages that have pushed back the delivery of raw materials.
“But we didn’t see that until very recently,” Steele said.
Layman said they have experienced a hiring lag given the company’s growth and the challenges that have come from the pandemic. However, employees are working overtime to support customers and their needs.
“We are constantly looking at how we operate, while also prioritizing the importance of flexibility these days,” Layman said. “We have launched several new shift models to afford our manufacturing employees more options to help with work-life balance and with production.”
Peterson said the lack of new employees has meant overtime for certain areas of the business as production is necessary on Saturdays in some instances. Shipping and material availability is also a concern.
Neal said there are a significant amount of underlying issues that need to be addressed. He said people are struggling to find adequate childcare or care for aging parents. That coupled with the uncertainty around schools remaining open and COVID-19 fears means a number of people just aren’t seeking employment right now.
“I’ve never seen it this way and I’ve been in business a long time,” Neal said.
Layman said recruiting has been challenging given relatively low unemployment in the state, unprecedented growth and challenges posed by the pandemic.
Another issue is the lack of housing in the area.
“As one of the largest employers in the area we are doing all we can to attract candidates to live and thrive in Jaffrey and its surrounding communities,” Layman said “While challenges exist, we do believe the area is a great place to live and work, and we are providing information to anyone interested about a career in Jaffrey at our site and in all of our communications with prospective candidates.”
Peterson can’t seem to figure out why people will apply and then just stop responding. He knows people need to get back to work at some point, but for whatever reason people just aren’t following through.
“I’ve been doing this for 45 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
New Hampshire’s preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2021 was 3.0 percent according to an NHES news release on Sept. 14. This was an increase of 0.1 percent from the July rate. Seasonally adjusted estimates for August 2021 placed the number of employed residents at 728,700, a decrease of 790 from the previous month and an increase of 18,910 from August 2020.
In July of 2021, the labor force in Hillsborough County was 236,800, with 228,420 employed and 8,380 unemployed for a 3.5 percent unemployment rate.
Initial unemployment claims in August stood at 2,610, less than 600 more than in February 2020, just prior to the pandemic. Continuing claims stood at 21,110 for August, while that number was 15,068 in February 2020.