North shore businesses struggle to find workers

North shore businesses struggle to find workers

Posted by By Cindy Chang, St. Tammany bureau May 12, 2007 9:45PM

Categories: Breaking News

In the post-Katrina scramble to recruit workers and reopen as soon as possible, Times Grill was among the many businesses in St. Tammany Parish that increased salaries to previously unheard-of levels.

Banners at the restaurant's Slidell and Mandeville locations trumpeted rates of up to $15 an hour. Employees received bigger benefits packages, including zero out-of-pocket health insurance for managers and transportation subsidies for those commuting from outside the area.

Now, nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina, Times Grill has kept its slate of enticements, but the restaurant is still having trouble finding workers. Its competitors have adopted similar tactics, and the burgeoning construction sector has stolen many former cooks and dishwashers.

The labor shortage appears to have eased somewhat but is still at what some have deemed a "critical" level -- one more sign of how Katrina has transformed the local economy, even in areas where the visible signs of destruction have long been cleared away.

"The talent pool is much more limited. Those who are doing well, who are good managers, the second they're available, there are others looking to hire them," said Marshall Hahn, Times Grill's regional manager. "If they're doing well, their employers are making sure they don't lose them."