Local “Osceola Works” program to address worker shortage
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Help wanted signs are on many storefront windows, like this one in downtown Kissimmee. PHOTO BY KEN JACKSON
It seems like just about every hotel, motel and restaurant — whether a fast-food joint or a sitdown eatery — is hiring in Osceola County.
It’s an about-face compared to 2020 when hospitality workers were being laid off in droves while the pandemic surged.
Lashonda Molina got her fulltime job back as a front desk clerk at a Kissimmee hotel in April. She was making $16 an hour working the night shift. But after about six weeks, Molina quit and started looking for work-from-home jobs.
“My mom lives with me and she got sick and I didn’t feel comfortable working nights anymore and leaving her home with the kids by herself,” said the Poinciana resident, who drove 30 minutes each way to work.
She didn’t qualify for unemployment benefits anymore since she quit. But the federal stimulus money helped her get by until she found what she calls the “perfect job” working from home only two weeks after leaving the hotel.
“My friend helped me get a customer service position with a cable company, and now I’m making almost twice what I was making before some weeks because of bonuses I get for meeting certain goals,” Molina said.
Restaurant employees have also been leaving their old jobs behind and searching for work with better pay and better hours.
“All the time I had with my kids while I was on unemployment made me reassess what I wanted to do with my life. I always worked in restaurants so I was used to not being with my family most nights,” said Kissimmee resident Denny Davis, who worked at a Celebration eatery for more than five years before COVID-19 closed it down.
Just before his unemployment benefits ran out, he started an electronic board assembly program at Valencia College and hopes to get a position with a defense company in Orlando when he completes the course at the end of the summer.
“I made good money at the restaurant, but the long hours away from my family wasn’t worth it anymore. And there’s so much potential in this new field. I know I’ll have better earning potential in the long run there and will be happier,” Davis said.
As the pandemic winds down, workers across the U.S. are quitting their jobs in record numbers — 4 million in April alone. And restaurants, hotels and the rest of the hospitality industry are feeling it the most.
Hourly wages have gone up. Chain restaurants, fast-food joints and locally owned eateries have bumped up hourly pay. And many are still offering sign-on bonuses to entice people to work.
“It’s not as dire as it was and the situation will continue to improve,” said John Newstreet, President/CEO of the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce.
Osceola County now has the third-highest unemployment rate in the state at 6.6 percent. It’s an improvement, considering it trended as the county with the highest jobless rate for the duration of the pandemic with unemployment at about 30 percent at the height of the pandemic.
Two upcoming factors will likely spur a return to the workforce: school starts again just under a month, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cut the additional $300 a week in federal unemployment from the state’s pandemic recovery program.
The chamber is now working with Osceola County and the City of Kissimmee on a program called “Osceola Works,” which aims to “skill up” workers to find better paying jobs like Molina and Davis did.
“We know we want to raise the earning potential for our citizens. We know we want to support our businesses so they thrive and succeed,” he said.
The plan would be funded with up to $12 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds and include backfilling lower-skilled jobs to prevent the labor shortages many restaurants and hotels are experiencing now, Newstreet said.
That includes teaching soft skills to inexperienced workers such as speaking with customers and English language skills, he said.
Newstreet said stakeholders are meeting this summer, and that the Chamber is serving only to help coordinate and relay employer needs with local government and educational institutions, including the School District of Osceola County, Valencia College and the University of Central Florida.
“I don’t care what the program is called or who gets the credit, let’s just make things better,” he said.
