I don’t think they are doing that extended unemployment or whatever anymore
I think restaurants are having a hard time finding employees because of low pay and stressful bad work environments etc., and lots just didn’t go back after this last year
My impression is there’s a bit of a rock-and-a-hard-place situation going on...thanks to inflation the would-be workers are saying “I can’t make ends meet on that”, while thanks to the lockdowns having depleted their retained earnings (and the same inflation) the employers are saying “I can’t do better than that”.
Most are still requiring employees to wear masks all day also. Who the hell wants to wear a mask for 8 hours aside from the fact it’s a serious long term health risk? During the lockdowns many people who were restaurant workers may have realized they want a better job and took steps in that direction.