FOG BLOG NEW BRUNSWICK LOG: NB BUSINESSES STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE, SHORTAGE OF STAFF AND CLIENTELLE:

There just hasn’t been anybody’: N.B. restaurant struggling to attract staff.......Rick Jackson has worked at the Gables Restaurant in Saint Andrews for over 25 years.

Businesses in the seaside town see an ebb and flow of customers as the summer season rolls in.

Jackson says those waves have come in extremes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The towns actually fairly busy right now, compared to what I thought it would be,” Jackson says.

“But compared to what it was two, three years ago? It was twice as busy.”...While the Gables is seating more patrons this summer than last, Jackson says they’ve struggled to rebuild a roster of staff.

“We’ve been trying to find people, there just hasn’t been anybody,” he says.

Usually, the restaurant hires about 12 extra staffers each summer. Jackson said they didn’t get any for 2021 — and thinks CERB could be to blame.

“You stay home, you get $500,” he says. “I know for a fact my wife works 40 hours a week and her take-home pay is just about that.

“So I think that has a lot to do with it.”

Because of the issue recruiting staff, the Gables has had to cut back on business hours — closing completely two days a week.

“Business-wise, it’s a little hard to have your doors closed and see all the people on the streets,” says Jackson.

He says the problem is plaguing his fellow business owners all across St. Andrews, but it seems to be spread beyond the town line.

“It’s not a unique problem,” says Carol Alderdice, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick.

“We are very much in a crisis when it comes to labour shortage in tourism, but all industries.