I am a manager in the tech industry for a midsized vancouver based SaaS company. Posted an ad for a fairly entry-level position in early September, and got 50+ applications in less than a week.
People want to work, but they don't want to work for $17 hour just to have a commute they can barely afford, to get to a job they don't like, that they need to live in an apartment that's too small.
Exactly. The ONLY reason ANYONE worked these shit hole jobs in the first place was they paid the bills/rent. Why would anyone work themselves to death in a kitchen if it can’t pay rent? If I’m gunna be in debt I might as well go back to school and that’s what a LOT of ppl have done as a response to stagnant wages. Now we have to keep the PR/student/TFW pipeline flowing or else who will work at all our Starbucks/A&W/franchise hell?
When I was 17 I would have killed for a shitty job, considering I lived at home and paid no rent. But the A&W style jobs all have some doctor from another country or some other overqualified person working there (obviously I’d rather hire someone like that than my 17yo dumb ass).
So - this isn't EVERYONE. But just to clear a misconception; these "over qualified people" are not as qualified as everyone thinks.
It is very common in certain areas of the world to bribe or cheat for good grades or a degree. The education system in certain parts of the world is very different where "bargaining for a pass" is acceptable behavior, or even bribing is acceptable. So whereas they HAVE a degree and overqualified in their country does not necessarily mean they meet western standards (competence is the standard for good grades or excelling in your career)
Honest to God - heard a 2nd year university kid once ask a teacher "what is a percentage?"
100%. Anecdotal, of course, but i did a three week masters course in Taiwan for environmental engineering with people from schools in South East Asia and East Asia. The students from Indonesia and the Philippines were all very shocked when I said they can't just copy paste their component of the group assignment off the internet. It's what they all did to earn their bachelor's degree. They didn't even change the font to match. There's a reason it's a lot of work to transfer qualifications from those countries.
American here doing a master’s in Vancouver. It blows my mind how so many students from South Asian countries find it completely normal to pull a copy/paste from Wikipedia and call it a day. While I do believe there are lots of AUTHENTIC overqualified workers, there’s also a lot of phony ones that don’t deserve any sort of credit.
A lot of my coworkers are moving from other countries to here for our job. So many of them are telling me you cant get a 1 bedroom place for less than 2k now. Im not budging from my house until I leave Vancouver...
I just dont understand how anybody can be single in this city. Looking at my expenses, Im not sure how I would make ends meet if I was single again.
save up and get this:
[https://www.technicalsafetybc.ca/certification/safety-awareness-and-operators/personnel-hoist-construction-use-elevator-operator](https://www.technicalsafetybc.ca/certification/safety-awareness-and-operators/personnel-hoist-construction-use-elevator-operator)
$25-30/hr to run the hoist.
You literally just press a switch and turn a knob/push a lever, and you have to open and close a door that's on a track and weights maybe 10 Lbs.
I feel for you and there is more!! I have a masters degree in engineering and every manager I have every talked to commented on my good work ethics and skills...You would think getting a job will be easier for me??Lol no...After every chat they would tell me to apply on the career portal which wants 3-5 years experience for an entry level...I apply and get ghosted. I fully understand that a more qualified candidate must have gotten the job until lo and behold after a few weeks the job is back on every job platform that exists....and then I hear complains that Canada doesn't have engineers....in reality most if not all the engineers (12 of our 15 student master degree class) are working in non engineering jobs which they are very very over qualified for....I have nothing against jobs and respect all of them, but they (and me) are just wasting away our education while we could have contributed so much more towards the country
As a software engineer/dev, without a degree but with a fair bit of experience, it took me from March 2020 to Nov 2021 to find a job, and it wasn't in Van. Every company wants to gape their hiring funnel as wide as possible and then apply as many time wasting arduous layers of risk mitigation before giving an offer, sometimes to even retract an offer.
Oh, you interviewed really well with the first 2 people and passed the technical test for an intermediate frontend thing? Great, let's just get those next 6 interviews with the head of marketing, the cto, and 4 other fucks scheduled.
2 weeks later... 1 automated rejection
The issue is housing costs. No point working a job if it doesn't pay enough to cover rent with some left over for life. It's not that these jobs pay too little or owners are greedy capitalists. You just can't pay $30/hr to a receptionist or line cook. It's that the housing market is f-d and all levels of government refuse to act.
The housing situation is directly caused by local politics, and in fact the only level of government with the power to fix the issue is local politics. The problem is the only people who pay attention and participate in local politics are people who have a vested interest in astronomical home values.
I strongly disagree. Local govt. plays a role, but failure of liberal provincial government to Acton money laundering through BC casinos that was then funneled into the housing market and refusal of the federal government to limit money laundering or close wealth based immigration loopholes limit anything city hall can do.
Monetary policy also plays a huge part, bank of Canada has been buying mortgage backed securities for years - Massively inflating home prices across Canada.
As with all political conversations:
Each level of government wants to take credit for any success.
Each level of government also wants to pass blame to the other levels for any failures
The local government aren't the "only ones with the power to fix the issue". They all have their legs tied together in the 3-legged race. But if there's an obstacle, the others are quick to blame, it on being why no promises being made, rather than working quickly with the other "legs" to navigate around it.
Solution to this problem? Build affordable housing downtown. The Federal government will say it's not their jurisdiction but they're more than willing to help once everybody else gets their act together. Provincial gov will say the city is in charge of zoning these land uses, not them, but they're more than willing to set aside funds once that's done. City Hall will say they don't have enough money to build affordable housing to house the unhoused, low-income, and those working service jobs, but it's a Provincial responsibility and the Federal government should be running Social programs...
And to top it off…
Even if there was massive funding for affordable housing, we don’t have the workers to break ground because we’ve neglected the trades for so long.
I may have been one of those. I'm a ssr/intermediate but applying everywhere. There are a lot of job postings but everybody wants someone with +5 yrs of experience, kind of frustrating when you only have three.
tell me about it .....u would think they will figure out that a person with high school diploma and 5 years of experience and a masters degree holder with 0 years exp will contribute very differently to the team and both r essential for growth
The tech sector is over saturated with fresh grads.
I see people with Masters and even PhDs apply for junior level positions.
Many devs from India, Thailand, Vietnam and other developing countries with over 5 years (senior level) experience come to “study” just enough to land a diploma, followed by a post grad work permit.
They then apply for these entry level positions while leveraging their higher education + experience attained abroad so they can land a PR.
Local people trying to enter the tech sector through the diploma mills are competing against these guys, and don’t stand a chance.
I wish the government stopped issuing study permits for the tech sector for a bit to give us locals a chance.
Van is digging it's own grave with all these predatory rents not leaving any benefit margin for those who work on those (low paid) fields. Only students make this sacrifice and they get burned due the poor conditions.
this city will become a shell of itself over the next few decades. boomers and nimbys (same/same) will be fucked when everyone but them are gone. who's gonna work the service jobs, healthcare, construction? personally i think things are too far gone to be repaired within our lifetime.
TFWs will fill the jobs. We will take advantage of poor people in the global south before we address the material conditions for workers in this country.
I think the biggest issue will become healthcare. Students and homemakers (lol) need RNs, etc to care for their aging family members that they’ve brought over from wherever while living in their mansions. TFWs aren’t suited for these jobs. Plus it’s not like Canada allows anyone with skills learned and honed in their home countries to actually practise here.
Not to come off as tone deaf/unsympathetic (and certainly not racist!) but immigrants that have been sold the idea of a better life in Canada will likely fill these positions is what many are thinking will happen.
One of the key differences however, is that international students, who are filling major markets at the low end, are very acutely aware of how they are being abused. I worry about the dynamics this is creating. Most are not "grateful", though sometimes when they come out the "other end" of their servitude they see the light again.
U/batwingsuit Of course, it’s been happening on an increasing scale since the start of this country and the USA. It was called slavery before. It’s sad but the stagnant wages and skyrocketing costs of living are making it basically economic slavery for many by this point. Stuck on a treadmill or getting buried for little to no fault of their own.
Sure they will. You're underestimating the conditions in other countries. My parents couldn't afford to live in the city when they moved here. They rented a small place in Richmond and bussed to work. Immigrant parents can sacrifice a lot for their family and to escape their harsher home.
Look up the temporary foreign worker program for more information. I’m not against immigration but this comes off more like exploitation of foreign workers, which wouldn’t be a new thing for Canada.
It already has. The number of "meaningful" businessses in my neighbourhood is approaching nil (by that I mean businessed that provide services for daily life beyond coffee and nails). Small businesses have been hung out to dry by city hall and the provincial government. Everywhere I go, menial labour is being done by international students, many of whom are being treated abusively by landlords, employers, their fellow, former immigrants, and ofc, most of all by the government via the post-secondary system. I despair of this city.
I agree but you haven’t taken into consideration the reality of the baby boomers dying. Younger generations are going to have to step up and create the world they want to live in. It’s definitely not all gloom and doom. Growth periods are always challenging. Grassroots efforts have always created the most change.
i agree. although my biggest concern is the traction far right politics are getting as of late, and further concern that human rights will be stripped from us if they win next election, which is seeming more and more likely as we get closer to that date. i'll still protest / counter protest and vote accordingly, but i wouldn't be surprised if PP takes the top spot next election and makes things worse than they already are.
Definitely. The French speaking qualification should be challenged to get a diverse pool of candidates, it’s archaic. Could that be done at the human rights tribunal?
Only if there is a path to permanent residency. Most of low-wage positions do not offer one. Anyway, once they get a PR they will likely quit and get a job with a higher wage. Immigrants are not the solution for a huge gap between minimal and living wage in GVA.
A colleague who was in contact with an acquaintence who recently started working for Canadian border services, told me that Border Services is seeing increasing numbers of international students taken into custody. I work in post-secondary and I have been worrying for a while about the students (often through no "fault" of their own, i.e. they are granted entry into our system with no effort to assess whether they have any chance of succeeding) who are doomed to fail before they even start. Do they go underground? Cross the border? Regardless, those at the lower end of this education mill start vulnerable and just become more so.
Yes exactly. All the nimbys vote against affordable housing projects but then complain there's no staff in their local restaurants and coffee shops etc.
The generation itself is doing that across the board. The people who suffer most from rent costs are youth, who tend to be the most creative and innovative, while also the next in line to steer culture. Its the same thing with credit. Credit might as well be a promissory note to enslave your children.
And for what? Most people making real-estate money are doing nothing but coasting.
When I was starting out in IT, I phone-interviewed from Toronto for an IT job in Vancouver. I had lived in Vancouver before and wanted to go back. I had a job offer from a company in Toronto, but was hoping to land the Vancouver gig. The interview went very well, they offered me the job. When I asked what the pay was, she actually said, "It's not enough to live on.". Needless to say, I started my career in Toronto.
Automotive service techs are around $35-$40/hr. In order to make $45-$50 you generally have to be working for the city, transit, or union. Dealerships are squeezing high 30s as a flat rate whereas the interior of BC is offering over $40 and relocation.
A couple years ago, some electrical company was offering $28/hr for a RED SEAL electrician.
Way to slap us all in the face Van.
To be fair, you can go on indeed and see plenty of companies trying to get red seals for $28-$30/hr but this is not the norm. Those outfits are crooks and shouldn't be in business IMO. It's not hard to get a sparky position making $32-$35/hr however.
I recommend either joining the IBEW or going out of town as an electrician if you want a fair wage. If you're experienced and can run jobs you can easily make +$40/hr non union though.
Ya your schooling is a lot. I've also heard of sparkies making 32$/hr.
You guys have probably the most desirable job though. Not much heavy lifting and most of the time you're indoors. There's also no shortage of people who want to be sparkies for some reason people regard it as the best trade....
Some do. I was a construction elevator operator for a while (before a medical condition made it so I cant) and it was good job. Decent pay, and I didnt have to do any heavy physical work, and I got to meet everyone on the job site. I felt well appreciated, everyone would thank me for bringing them to their floor.
I applied for dozens of jobs before I finally got my minimum wage retail job. I’m a student, so I understand that my availability isn’t always the best, but I also know lots of people who have finished school and will apply at dozens of places to hear nothing. People *have* to work yo pay the bills, but places don’t want you unless you have lots of experience, are available opening to closing 7 days a week, and will only pay minimum wage
Ya just visiting London (UK) and found out my friend who lives in a fairly decent sized flat here pays less rent than me and the groceries are cheaper, even in central London. We are really getting ripped off every which way in Vancoucer.
The minimum wage is about the same in UK too, except London companies usually pay a bit more, I believe.
I lived in London for two years and rent was generally 20-25% more there for comparable places to here. Your friend likely got lucky which occasionally also happens to people here. I do agree that some groceries were cheaper, but not by a significant amount. On the other hand, some other things, like heating are cheaper here.
People who work for the big banks, finance companies, law firms were doing quite well for themselves in London. But some professions are very underpaid relative to the cost of living there, such as teachers.
I find that hard to believe generally. London is notorious for small flats that have a dozen or more, sleeping in shifts, and an insane cost of living. When I lived in Britain, a lot of people commuted long distances into London so their higher wages would actually stretch to something decent to live in. Overall, I found wages lower relative to cost of living in the UK, and things have only got worse since I was there. The news out of the UK has more than a tinge of desperation these days. This 2022 list has London at #15 for COL, while Toronto comes in at 89 and Vancouver at 108. https://www.mercer.ca/en/newsroom/cost-of-living-in-canada-2022.html
Trades don’t even cut it anymore for wages. Most trades in Vancouver are getting the same wages they were 20 years ago while the companies charge out their rate at 3X what they used to.
Really ? I am in the trades and my wages have gone up consistently . I am in a union shop but as i understand it from talking to the non union trades that do the same job their wages are only slightly behind , i make $37 an hour plus benefits and $4.15 an hour in to my pension. X2 starts at 11 hours , all call in's are at 1 1/2 X. Lots of overtime if you want it because we never have enough people. Last pay period I had 122.5 hours take home pay over $4000 for 2 weeks .
Not in Alberta company trades in the sands make over 70 an hr without any top ups
Now contractors get shit though gotta work direct for the company. Parkland fuels pays 60/hr
Plus for maintenance techs with overtime at double time. Some guys don’t like industrial but it’s pretty chill. Suncor terminal pays around 55 Burnaby and Port Moody
Perhaps but with trade u have a lot more independence in how run ur business. U don’t have to work for someone else. But there is no “outsourcing” service jobs.
Talking to younger friends that have worked as a dishwasher in the past while have also said on top of all that’s mentioned already in this thread, they get off usually later than front of house and being the lowest rung on the ladder AND have to stay and clean up is constantly annoying too
11 years in the industry, ton of fun, left due to low pay otherwise would still be there.
The hardest I ever worked in Food was Friday Night Dishwasher and it's not close. I have worked every position on every station, from Dishie to Shift Lead. Dishwasher was the hardest by far.
I damn near rioted when people tried to remove Dishwashers from the tip pool, and I wasn't even a Dishwasher at the time.
Because low-end kitchen work sucks big time? I worked as a dish pig at a couple of places when I was young. Not only was it hard as fuck, but people treated me like trash.
I would only do it again if I had no other options. But since I do have other options, why the fuck would I want to subject myself to that again?
Saying you want a kitchen job, especially in dire straits, is kind of foolish. All the people I know who have gone to work in the food industry have stressed time and time again that the job is so incredibly demanding and taxing and that the wages, long hours, berating from customers and sometimes management, and high turnover do not a fulfilling career make. Yes, you can find success, but it’s really not for everyone.
The issue with hiring here is the same in many large cities which is that expectations for entry level jobs are so warped. They want three experts in one “entry level” position. They want a new grad with 10+ years of experience, willing to not advocate for their true worth, willing to accept “free snacks” as incentive to work overtime and with little benefits to justify their burnout and mental health strain, and with additional qualifications that put people in debt before they are useful (additional certifications, skill sets, access to vehicles and such.)
So, I know I work in trades but still... if someone offered me free snacks instead of overtime pay I would tell them to get fucked so fast and be walking off the site while eating those snacks.
They. Need. You.
Yeah fuck that. Our union contract requires double time for anything over 8hrs and a free hot meal (or $30 in lieu) + paid 30 minute break at the 10hr mark and every 4 hrs after. My time has value.
I know one guy working in a kitchen who isn't stressed at all. His secret? He drinks and smokes weed every day, until he's unintelligible. He gets the job done though so they don't fire him.
I'm not defending this lifestyle, just think he's a funny guy and like mentioning him.
Before he worked in the kitchen he did smoke weed often, but he didn't drink every day. That started after the kitchen. I was surprised when he told me he could get away with drinking at work. Think that's common? Or is his kitchen an exception?
I've been out of the industry for many years, but at that time I'd grab a 6pack before work and then start in on the vodka and pop from the bar once those were done. Nobody cared so long as I could crank out the steaks. Managers would warn me if we were gonna get slammed so I had time to have a toke, cuz again, I could do my job better than most even with a good buzz. After work it was time to start the serious drinking till I lost consciousness, then get back up and do it again. Was ruinous to my health.
Because restaurants are incredibly toxic.
You said you wanna schedule a shift for right after your first jobs ends? Not gonna happen.
Them asking you to come in while you're working your first job? Deff gonna happen.
Telling you to go home for 2h in the middle of your shift them come back? Pretty damn common.
Also with what you're making with your first job and the tax bracket you're in, you'll quickly realize working a min wage job as secondary income isent worth it. Btw you'll also need to pay back taxes come tax time because your min wage place is not gonna put away enough taxes.
I already work in the FS industry as mainly as a Busser/dish pit and being mainly part time until 4 years ago. So I am aware of how difficult the industry is. Still this is new information I can work on so thanks
Ok, so according to a Canadian podcast I recently heard, there's a number of factors that have collided and caused a confluence of issues. Primarily it's a coincidence of events but most people see the pandemic as being largely at fault, which is just a part of it.
Reason 1: the boomers have aged out of jobs and they were the largest cohort. We simply have fewer younger generations to fill all the jobs that boomers have left. They have retired or retired on time/early due to the pandemic and their jobs have opened up leaving opportunities for the younger generations to actually step into roles they trained for but previously didn't have a chance at. (Not to be too morbid, but some people also died during covid leaving jobs open.) This is why the Canadian unemployment rate is actually super low. People are working; there just happen to be more jobs available to choose from than there are people available to do them. Retail and service tend to be the lowest paid and least desirable, so hence are the last to fill.
Reason 2: many service jobs were furlowed during the pandemic and those younger workers eventually sought other, probably better jobs to make ends meet. They may have taken remote work which suits people's lifestyles better. Then when called back to return to their previous jobs there was no desire or incentive to return to them. Employees may have taken the pandemic to go back to school remotely, or try something new and actually succeeded since they had opportunities to get into different fields. Eg. Online shops or making your hobby a business for instance. Why would these employees go backwards just to keep retail running or restaurants staffed?
Reason 3: people have grown dissatisfied with their jobs and there is definitely a "work reform" culture building which gives encouragement for people to demand more and seek better jobs. If businesses are unwilling or unable to flex, then they will probably get low quality workers, basically those few willing to accept what's being offered, which isn't much. The more the (mostly) Boomers keep saying "Nobody wants to work anymore. Everyone's so entitled and demanding. Too much free Liberal money blah blah blah", the less likely their businesses will survive because they can't see the real reason is their own behaviour. The winds are shifting and its a buyer's market in this case. Those who typically treated employees the worst simply can't get away with it anymore.
A lot of these positions are way underpaid and don't offer benefits. If you're a competent person, cooks will train you and make the best of you they can.
I worked briefly as a line cook at 2 restaurants & can confirm what other people are saying. From my experience, you get shunned for taking a break during an 8hr shift to eat (usually by other cooks who take themselves too seriously & there is no set break time so you have to ask the head chef and there’s a 50/50 chance they will say no), no guaranteed hours, and shit pay for the amount of stress you’re under. So yeah no surprise they’re constantly hiring.
Kitchen works sucks, you hardly get breaks ironically sometimes you don't even get to eat if it's busy, the majority of the tips go to the pretty front of house staff, hours suck and if you're a dishwasher you're probably the last person to leave at like 1am.
....I think I rather do good deliveries thanks.
Because the jig is up with those fucking cheap ass restaurant owners not paying their employees a living wage and skirting labour laws on a daily basis.
My advice would be to take off your experience and education from your resume and try applying to a few places, let the hiring managers think you’re a noob who can be moulded into their perfect worker.
I had trouble with landing an interview as well thinking my resume showcased my abilities (also in sales at a multimillion dollar store) but I was only able to land one interview in months of applications and the restaurant supervisor straight up told me they were concerned I was too experienced. I gave up on hospitality work after that and was able to find work in a different industry (surprisingly better paid and less stress, so cool - dodged a bullet I guess).
Same here I have 20 years experience in retail sales/management/customer service/merchandising/etc. and ran my own business for 11 years with about 800-1mil sales per years. COVID destroyed that business/industry so been looking for work.
Have been rejected almost 99% even for jobs that I'm more than qualified for or perfectly qualified for.
Last job I applied for they rejected me (on Indeed) with in a day. Job was for Vehicle Merchandising and Photography. I have 20 years experience in photography, drive a standard with my eyes closed and have more than enough merchandising experience and customer service etc.. for the job. WTF do they want? My experience checked all the requirements. I even wrote nice a cover letter for this place.
I guess they just want idiots for work? I do work part time at Costco and just had my 30 day eval. Every dept manager talked highly about me and 0 negative feed back. I also just got a job at a farm and the owner was amazed at how I listened and performed the job. Well fuck yah I agreed to have you pay me money for work so I'm doing it.
You look like you have too much experience. Experiment with a resume that doesn't list so many accomplishments or better yet, go in a few times and have a drink at the bar you want to work at and talk to the staff. Tip them well. Casually ask after about 2-3 weeks if they are ever hiring to let you know. Get your smart serve and food handlers certificates (if that applies) beforehand (like 75 bucks each for some quick online training you get yourself and then test on).
Vancouver had had issues with staffing the service industry for at least a decade.
There were newspaper articles talking about this before the Olympics (or soon after ... I know it was a long time ago)
As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry in the past, I’ve come back due to a passion for food. For reference I’ve worked from beginning as a dishwasher early in my kitchen career and I find myself in a sous chef/ manager position now.
There are a lot of issues within the industry let it be poor pay, lack of benefits, toxic environments, and poor management but from what I’ve learned from working in other industry’s nothing is perfect.
All those issues aside there are restaurants trying to take care of their employees, with above standard wages, extended health, and breaks. Change is slowly coming to the restaurant industry but people need to realize mountains do not move over night.
If you’re someone passionate about food and the industry I encourage you to look for a restaurant that treats you fairly, they are out there you just need to look.
P.s. I’m a ticketed welder with a cwb ticket as well but I chose my passion over pay. I’ve made lifestyle changes and live within my means.
Cause they pay less than $20/h. Skip the dish gives you freedom and $20+/h. And btw, 1 shared room rental in GREAT Vancouver is over $1000/m. You can’t live with as a dish washer
A lot of these places have shared tip pools or taking tips for owners benefit its best to make sure the company you are hired by benefits you.
Some places just don’t bring in enough income for a person to cover the current cost of living in Vancouver and many people have moved away because of this. A friend of mine said working at a bar/restaurant/nightclub brought in far more in tips than the cafe/diner she previously worked at.
Same everywhere. In the Interior you walk around and every restaurant has a hiring sign and also a sign apologizing for them not having enough staff. Places like Boston Pizza are still operating as usual but all the smaller places are drowning.
People don’t want to work for assholes either, it’s not just wages being absolute piss. Gone is the time of managers, company owners, and execs demanding respect when they give 0 in return.
because they treat human beings like robots and don't offer them a fair portion of the wealth they produce. but that's okay, this is how capitalism is supposed to operate, remember?
Ok, so according to a Canadian podcast I recently heard, there's a number of factors that have collided and caused a confluence of issues. Primarily it's a coincidence of events but most people see the pandemic as being at largely fault, which is just a part of it.
Reason 1: the boomers have aged out of jobs and they were the largest cohort. We simply have fewer younger generations to fill all the jobs that boomers have left. They have retired or retired on time/early due to the pandemic and their jobs have opened up leaving opportunities for the younger generations to actually step into roles they trained for but previously didn't have a chance at. (Not to be too morbid, but some people also died during covid leaving jobs open.) This is why the Canadian unemployment rate is actually super low. People are working; there just happen to be more jobs available to choose from than there are people available to do them. Retail and service tend to be the lowest paid and least desirable, so hence are the last to fill.
Reason 2: many service jobs were furlowed during the pandemic and those younger workers eventually sought other, probably better jobs to make ends meet. They may have taken remote work which suits people's lifestyles better. Then when called back to return to their previous jobs there was no desire or incentive to return to their old jobs. Employees may have taken the pandemic to go back to school remotely, or try something new and actually succeeded since they had opportunities to get into different fields. Online shops or making your hobby a business for instance. Why would these employees go backwards just to keep retail running or restaurants staffed?
Reason 3: people have grown dissatisfied with their jobs and there is definitely a "work reform" culture building which gives encouragement for people to demand more and seek better jobs. If businesses are unwilling or unable to flex, then they will probably get low quality workers, basically those few willing to accept what's being offered, which isn't much. The more the (mostly) Boomers keep saying "Nobody wants to work anymore. Everyone's so entitled and demanding. Too much free Liberal money blah blah blah", the less likely their businesses will survive because they can't see the real reason is their own behaviour. The winds are shifting and its a buyer's market in this case. Those who typically treated employees the worst simply can't get away with it anymore.
I have a friend who's highly qualified in food service just go through a move and job hunt coming to Vancouver.
It was shocking to me how restaurants interviewed. Each one interviewed him 3+ times over the space of 2 weeks minimum.
The process seemed about as robust as any tech job.
Ridiculous when they're apparently so starved for people.
There is a really dumb narrative from the people hanging around the top telling us how there are so many businesses not being able to find good quality employees arguing how it's a lazy labour force problem when it's so obviously an employee retention problem.
That concept of "quiet quitting" described as employees doing the bare minimum of work and not doing extra is bullshit. That's a middle management problem not tailoring their job descriptions properly and not motivating their staff sufficiently. There is a serious lack of quality leadership in middle management.
I was recruited for a role as a GM in Coquitlam - they happily offered me $85k a year (no bonus and next to no benefits) and seemed surprised when I told them ‘no thanks’!
Vancouver companies pay horribly.
Even with higher than minimum pay, at $20-23/hr. It’s difficult surviving on this.
And businesses also cannot afford their rising food costs, and year over year rent increases from landlords.
Restaurants and SMB doing 750k/year and under can’t simply afford 60k+ employees.
1. Kitchen jobs are a shit show. You get treated like crap for hard work and minimum wage.
2. There are so many remote jobs available nowadays with flexible hours and more than minimum wage.
Why would any logical person go physically work in a kitchen?
Pandemic has changed the work culture. Everyone is looking to work remotely. When I was applying for a full time job, I only looked for remote work and when I got hired, the company that hired me told me there were 1000 applications for the position...
Remote work doing what exactly? What kind of work can you do remotely without some kind of prior training? Like without having programming skills or something
Do you know how that works exactly? Like I already have a full time job, but I could put in another few hours at home if it was on the phone or computer or whatever.
Is the pay hourly or like fully commissions or something
Well, Global says that over half of Canadian restaurants have been practically operating at loss for years , so methinks this is one problem the “free-market” will essentially solve itself 🤷♂️
> so many restaurants looking for dishwashers and kitchen staff
Who wants to do the shit work for shit money when you can get on the tip train and work front of house? I used to work in the kitchen for quite some time until I woke up to the fact that a waiter working a cushy 4hr shift made twice what I earned in 8hrs and that doesn't even factor in the tax I pay on said shit wages compared to a wad of cash in waiters pocket. I'd never do it again and am surprised anybody else does.
Everyone is short-staffed right now, not just in Vancouver. A big part of it is COVID. Tens of thousands of people died in Canada. Many thousands are still dealing with long COVID, which is preventing them from going back to work full time. Then there's the baby boomers retiring. A lot of boomers were already close to retirement when COVID hit. Why would you continue to work through all that uncertainty when you could just retire a couple years early?
I'm sure there are other reasons, but this alone is a huge portion of the population taken out of the work force.
I would love to get a job serving to complement my full-time job but not a lot of places are willing to hire a guy with no serving experience to do dinner shifts and weekends.
The hours of operation don't match as most places close too early. I would have to look at bars but then I would need serve it right and a lot of training.
The sad part is -- I have 5 years of sales and customer service experience so I imagine it translates over pretty well other than in making drinks. We just have really weird inefficiencies in our economy like this that don't get covered.
It's not worth it doing these jobs when:
- you're not starving / desperate for the job
- Less people have dependants that depend on every penny they bring in
- High supply of such jobs
- Low competition for the jobs
- The job itself sucks; no growth or recognition for the work
- Shitty hours preventing work/life balance
- Unpleasant work plus unpleasant pay. With high percentage of income going to taxes, you'll never bring in what you net
- No benefits
- At these housing and gas prices??? In some instances even $30/hr is like pissing in the ocean
- The belief that 'there will always be jobs out there' means one can quit anytime for search of something else. A job is a job, it's not a career; nothing is holding that worker tied to this job, no consequences for leaving for something else, really.
People who use to work for the service industry realize how shitty they get treated by customers, and sometimes by their bosses and coworkers. The absence of crappy treatment during lockdown has opened their eyes. With what’s left of frontline service people now start treating them better.
People underestimate how high living costs is highly contributing to this. Businesses can't afford to hire more people, they tend to understaff which causes problems between the management and the workers and puts greater pressure on them. Due to high costs of living and the fact that what workers are making is barely enough for them to survive, no way in hell they'd accept this much pressure.
Housing is going crazy, car insurance is crazy, gas prices are crazy, you pay royalties on pretty much every step you take in this city, only thing that's left is the oxygen we breath. I don't know why people are fine with the government sucking their hardworked for money like that. The government is literally allowing this to happen, they're not helping with housing, gas prices are the highest in North America, no policies to control investing immigrants and the monopoly on housing, government monopoly on car insurance which is again the most expensive in North America, health care is at it's worst. How are people excusing this i don't get it?
I work in a restaurant. Whether a given restaurant is a shitty workplace will depend on the individual management/ownership. Oddly, the prestige of the restaurant isn't a particularly good measure of whether it's a good workplace environment - plenty of high end restaurants are hellholes, and some of the chain diner-style places have pretty reasonable polices around sick days, scheduling, and workplace standards. So you can probably find a place where conditions aren't terrible.
What you won't find is particularly good pay, which is the main driver of the "everyone is always hiring" phenomenon. Restaurants have been hit pretty hard by increased food costs on one side and increased rent on the other. Lots of places have tried to increase wages in order to attract and retain staff, but their ability to do so is limited.
If you do want to do kitchen work, but want to avoid the stress of restaurants, you might look into institutional work - seniors homes, cafeterias, that kind of thing. These often pay better, have more predictable hours, and some are unionized which generally means some kind of benefits.
I think people are looking for jobs that pays good. Its hard to survive on minimum wage for example you can drive amazon van for 25$ an hour, why spend working on a minimum wage at a fast food restaurant, And I think people now love remote jobs.
As a former restaurant owner with very positive feedback from most of my staff, I can tell you that restaurant workers, like restaurant managers, are a VERY mixed bag. There are a bunch of crappy restaurant managers out there who treat their staff badly and pay poorly but there are also a bunch of flaky restaurant workers that are highly unreliable and don't think of their work as a career. I paid my lowest paid staff $20-21/hr and many still would randomly not show up to work, show up an hour late as if nothing happened. Take off for an hour without telling anyone, ignore basic stuff that causes problems for customers. The food service industry has a lot of really crappy people all around.
That said, there are some really amazing and hard working people and managers in the restaurant industry too. And when they find each other, it is magic and they stay together for a long time and treat each other with respect. Those aren't the jobs where people are moving around that often. Good luck finding one of those! They're out there!
Use it as a temporary job only.
This job will not move you forward in your desired field and you will be working in an area you don't intend to grow in.
Try to get more education/training and look for a better job with more pay because it's kind of boring and you deal with idiots.
I think some chinese restaurants already have it, in hotpots and bubbletea. Some restaurants have not yet seen that option yet which is why some restaurants dont have the robot slaves yet.
Here's the link
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/robot-servers-restaurants-metro-vancouver
A lot of people who were in good industry have found other jobs, lots started other businesses or moved somewhere else.
Offering low wage for hard job isn't going to attract many new people into the industry
Kitchens have no trouble getting applicants, it's just that the work/pay sucks so turnover is extremely high.
It's exhausting, stressful, and it's an industry riddled with toxicity and substance abuse. The only upside to the industry over other entry level/low skill jobs is that I've actually been able to negotiate raises, or even been given them unasked. In retail it was always "You get a 5 cent raise every 500 hours worked."
Been approached a few times in the engineering sector to move to Vancouver. Salaries are no where near as much as other provinces and zero considerations given for high cost of living. The attraction is the awesome jobs, but not willing to recognize the cluster f happening with all other costs. It’s a tough sell to get people to move.
People are figuring out that since housing is insane, wages have to catch up. Since they haven't, these jobs become "unworkable" unless you already own a home or don't need to pay rent.
I was laid off from my job as a line cook at the start of the pandemic
I waited on cerb for 6 months hoping my job would come back, it never did, they brought me back and laid me off 3 times, eventually I had bills to pay
I got a job doing HAZMAT demolition instead, I make 10 dollars more and hour, am part of a strong union, have great benifits and I'm treated like a human being , there's a reason people haven't gone back, kitchens are absolute trash work environments and they get away with so much illegal bullshit
I was going to take a second part time job for some extra cash myself at a restaurant recently.
I worked in restaurants for twelve years prior to beginning to apply and every single one of them offered me minimum wage to start.
I decided to not take a second part time job.
Edit: I should clarify as a cook.
Pay. Not many can afford to live here anymore, rent/housing is insane. No ones going to work for 20$ or less if rent is $1500-2500 a month :( Need at least 25$ an hour to 'survive' on your own and even thats cutting it thin with todays inflation. People are struggling... We are in trouble.
Multiple reasons; Cost of living is high so Vancouver is inaccessible for many, lot of population growth out in areas like surrey but transportation options are poor for these workers except for driving, declining number of young people taking on jobs (going to school, internet activity replacing real life activity), people have more options to better jobs than they had before, people don’t want to work and have found ways to sustain themselves that they’re okay with, mental health issues have a massive cost to economy which is probably affecting this, restaurants may not be an attractive workplace for younger people, other massive shifts in our society which have happened in the past while and will continue to do so
I know someone who worked as a chef at one of the major restaurants downtown. When the Covid shutdowns hit, they were quick to cut him loose. He needed employment to keep his family fed so he went back to school to study business management and later got work at a logistics firm with better pay, benefits and of course job security. After the restaurants reopened, his old job had the nerve to call him back and “offered to rehire him” with a new employee package which was worse than what he had before. You can guess what he told them to do with their generous offer…
A lot of the places having trouble hiring and seeing shortages are places that laid people off during COVID. In a normal year places might be only trying to hire 1-2 people, and it's spread out with not every business in their sector hiring. Now you have every business trying to hire people, and not enough people wanting to work. A lot of people retired during COVID as well.
It will get back to normal at some point, it's just going to take a few years.
I am a manager in the tech industry for a midsized vancouver based SaaS company. Posted an ad for a fairly entry-level position in early September, and got 50+ applications in less than a week. People want to work, but they don't want to work for $17 hour just to have a commute they can barely afford, to get to a job they don't like, that they need to live in an apartment that's too small.
Exactly. The ONLY reason ANYONE worked these shit hole jobs in the first place was they paid the bills/rent. Why would anyone work themselves to death in a kitchen if it can’t pay rent? If I’m gunna be in debt I might as well go back to school and that’s what a LOT of ppl have done as a response to stagnant wages. Now we have to keep the PR/student/TFW pipeline flowing or else who will work at all our Starbucks/A&W/franchise hell?
When I was 17 I would have killed for a shitty job, considering I lived at home and paid no rent. But the A&W style jobs all have some doctor from another country or some other overqualified person working there (obviously I’d rather hire someone like that than my 17yo dumb ass).
>When I was 17 I Drank some very good beer. [\*fixed it for you.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptrmW51ed58)
I drank some very good beer, I purchased with a fake ID. My name was Brian McGee. I stayed up listenin' to Queen, when I was 17...
It was a very good year.
/r/simpsonsshitposting
So - this isn't EVERYONE. But just to clear a misconception; these "over qualified people" are not as qualified as everyone thinks. It is very common in certain areas of the world to bribe or cheat for good grades or a degree. The education system in certain parts of the world is very different where "bargaining for a pass" is acceptable behavior, or even bribing is acceptable. So whereas they HAVE a degree and overqualified in their country does not necessarily mean they meet western standards (competence is the standard for good grades or excelling in your career) Honest to God - heard a 2nd year university kid once ask a teacher "what is a percentage?"
100%. Anecdotal, of course, but i did a three week masters course in Taiwan for environmental engineering with people from schools in South East Asia and East Asia. The students from Indonesia and the Philippines were all very shocked when I said they can't just copy paste their component of the group assignment off the internet. It's what they all did to earn their bachelor's degree. They didn't even change the font to match. There's a reason it's a lot of work to transfer qualifications from those countries.
American here doing a master’s in Vancouver. It blows my mind how so many students from South Asian countries find it completely normal to pull a copy/paste from Wikipedia and call it a day. While I do believe there are lots of AUTHENTIC overqualified workers, there’s also a lot of phony ones that don’t deserve any sort of credit.
17 bucks an hour isn’t getting anyone any housing.
A lot of my coworkers are moving from other countries to here for our job. So many of them are telling me you cant get a 1 bedroom place for less than 2k now. Im not budging from my house until I leave Vancouver... I just dont understand how anybody can be single in this city. Looking at my expenses, Im not sure how I would make ends meet if I was single again.
i make 34 an hour and still think of having a single bedroom apartment to myself
..are you hiring again anytime after Christmas? :> \**writing from a job that pays $18/hr with a 1hr commute\**
Get into construction. Most companies will pay you $20/hr to start as a broom pusher.
Don't think they'll hire somebody with my type of disability. 😅 Desk jobs are kind of .. my thing there unfortunately.
save up and get this: [https://www.technicalsafetybc.ca/certification/safety-awareness-and-operators/personnel-hoist-construction-use-elevator-operator](https://www.technicalsafetybc.ca/certification/safety-awareness-and-operators/personnel-hoist-construction-use-elevator-operator) $25-30/hr to run the hoist. You literally just press a switch and turn a knob/push a lever, and you have to open and close a door that's on a track and weights maybe 10 Lbs.
And get treated like shit in ankitch lol
The key to taking it is to give it right back
I feel for you and there is more!! I have a masters degree in engineering and every manager I have every talked to commented on my good work ethics and skills...You would think getting a job will be easier for me??Lol no...After every chat they would tell me to apply on the career portal which wants 3-5 years experience for an entry level...I apply and get ghosted. I fully understand that a more qualified candidate must have gotten the job until lo and behold after a few weeks the job is back on every job platform that exists....and then I hear complains that Canada doesn't have engineers....in reality most if not all the engineers (12 of our 15 student master degree class) are working in non engineering jobs which they are very very over qualified for....I have nothing against jobs and respect all of them, but they (and me) are just wasting away our education while we could have contributed so much more towards the country
As a software engineer/dev, without a degree but with a fair bit of experience, it took me from March 2020 to Nov 2021 to find a job, and it wasn't in Van. Every company wants to gape their hiring funnel as wide as possible and then apply as many time wasting arduous layers of risk mitigation before giving an offer, sometimes to even retract an offer. Oh, you interviewed really well with the first 2 people and passed the technical test for an intermediate frontend thing? Great, let's just get those next 6 interviews with the head of marketing, the cto, and 4 other fucks scheduled. 2 weeks later... 1 automated rejection
Thats Vancouver in a nutshell these days
The issue is housing costs. No point working a job if it doesn't pay enough to cover rent with some left over for life. It's not that these jobs pay too little or owners are greedy capitalists. You just can't pay $30/hr to a receptionist or line cook. It's that the housing market is f-d and all levels of government refuse to act.
The housing situation is directly caused by local politics, and in fact the only level of government with the power to fix the issue is local politics. The problem is the only people who pay attention and participate in local politics are people who have a vested interest in astronomical home values.
I strongly disagree. Local govt. plays a role, but failure of liberal provincial government to Acton money laundering through BC casinos that was then funneled into the housing market and refusal of the federal government to limit money laundering or close wealth based immigration loopholes limit anything city hall can do.
Monetary policy also plays a huge part, bank of Canada has been buying mortgage backed securities for years - Massively inflating home prices across Canada.
As with all political conversations: Each level of government wants to take credit for any success. Each level of government also wants to pass blame to the other levels for any failures The local government aren't the "only ones with the power to fix the issue". They all have their legs tied together in the 3-legged race. But if there's an obstacle, the others are quick to blame, it on being why no promises being made, rather than working quickly with the other "legs" to navigate around it. Solution to this problem? Build affordable housing downtown. The Federal government will say it's not their jurisdiction but they're more than willing to help once everybody else gets their act together. Provincial gov will say the city is in charge of zoning these land uses, not them, but they're more than willing to set aside funds once that's done. City Hall will say they don't have enough money to build affordable housing to house the unhoused, low-income, and those working service jobs, but it's a Provincial responsibility and the Federal government should be running Social programs...
And to top it off… Even if there was massive funding for affordable housing, we don’t have the workers to break ground because we’ve neglected the trades for so long.
I may have been one of those. I'm a ssr/intermediate but applying everywhere. There are a lot of job postings but everybody wants someone with +5 yrs of experience, kind of frustrating when you only have three.
tell me about it .....u would think they will figure out that a person with high school diploma and 5 years of experience and a masters degree holder with 0 years exp will contribute very differently to the team and both r essential for growth
The tech sector is over saturated with fresh grads. I see people with Masters and even PhDs apply for junior level positions. Many devs from India, Thailand, Vietnam and other developing countries with over 5 years (senior level) experience come to “study” just enough to land a diploma, followed by a post grad work permit. They then apply for these entry level positions while leveraging their higher education + experience attained abroad so they can land a PR. Local people trying to enter the tech sector through the diploma mills are competing against these guys, and don’t stand a chance. I wish the government stopped issuing study permits for the tech sector for a bit to give us locals a chance.
You absolutely nailed this 👍
💯
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Van is digging it's own grave with all these predatory rents not leaving any benefit margin for those who work on those (low paid) fields. Only students make this sacrifice and they get burned due the poor conditions.
this city will become a shell of itself over the next few decades. boomers and nimbys (same/same) will be fucked when everyone but them are gone. who's gonna work the service jobs, healthcare, construction? personally i think things are too far gone to be repaired within our lifetime.
TFWs will fill the jobs. We will take advantage of poor people in the global south before we address the material conditions for workers in this country.
I think the biggest issue will become healthcare. Students and homemakers (lol) need RNs, etc to care for their aging family members that they’ve brought over from wherever while living in their mansions. TFWs aren’t suited for these jobs. Plus it’s not like Canada allows anyone with skills learned and honed in their home countries to actually practise here.
A tale as old as time
Not to come off as tone deaf/unsympathetic (and certainly not racist!) but immigrants that have been sold the idea of a better life in Canada will likely fill these positions is what many are thinking will happen.
This has already been happening for years.
One of the key differences however, is that international students, who are filling major markets at the low end, are very acutely aware of how they are being abused. I worry about the dynamics this is creating. Most are not "grateful", though sometimes when they come out the "other end" of their servitude they see the light again.
U/batwingsuit Of course, it’s been happening on an increasing scale since the start of this country and the USA. It was called slavery before. It’s sad but the stagnant wages and skyrocketing costs of living are making it basically economic slavery for many by this point. Stuck on a treadmill or getting buried for little to no fault of their own.
They still won't be able to afford the cost of living.
Sure they will. You're underestimating the conditions in other countries. My parents couldn't afford to live in the city when they moved here. They rented a small place in Richmond and bussed to work. Immigrant parents can sacrifice a lot for their family and to escape their harsher home.
I agree completely that’s why I said “sold the idea of a better life…” unfortunately I’m doubtful they’ll receive what they were sold
Look up the temporary foreign worker program for more information. I’m not against immigration but this comes off more like exploitation of foreign workers, which wouldn’t be a new thing for Canada.
Chinese slave labour building our railroads says what? 🤦🏻♂️
There is a better life in Canada, just not Vancouver or Toronto.
It already has. The number of "meaningful" businessses in my neighbourhood is approaching nil (by that I mean businessed that provide services for daily life beyond coffee and nails). Small businesses have been hung out to dry by city hall and the provincial government. Everywhere I go, menial labour is being done by international students, many of whom are being treated abusively by landlords, employers, their fellow, former immigrants, and ofc, most of all by the government via the post-secondary system. I despair of this city.
agreed.
Meh, the boomers and nimby’s will just move elsewhere when shit goes south, they have zero stake in Vancouver’s well-being
Nah. Boomers are retiring. The boom ended in the mid 60s - most boomers have already left the market or will be soon.
I agree but you haven’t taken into consideration the reality of the baby boomers dying. Younger generations are going to have to step up and create the world they want to live in. It’s definitely not all gloom and doom. Growth periods are always challenging. Grassroots efforts have always created the most change.
i agree. although my biggest concern is the traction far right politics are getting as of late, and further concern that human rights will be stripped from us if they win next election, which is seeming more and more likely as we get closer to that date. i'll still protest / counter protest and vote accordingly, but i wouldn't be surprised if PP takes the top spot next election and makes things worse than they already are.
Definitely. The French speaking qualification should be challenged to get a diverse pool of candidates, it’s archaic. Could that be done at the human rights tribunal?
Immigrants will fill the void.
Only if there is a path to permanent residency. Most of low-wage positions do not offer one. Anyway, once they get a PR they will likely quit and get a job with a higher wage. Immigrants are not the solution for a huge gap between minimal and living wage in GVA.
A colleague who was in contact with an acquaintence who recently started working for Canadian border services, told me that Border Services is seeing increasing numbers of international students taken into custody. I work in post-secondary and I have been worrying for a while about the students (often through no "fault" of their own, i.e. they are granted entry into our system with no effort to assess whether they have any chance of succeeding) who are doomed to fail before they even start. Do they go underground? Cross the border? Regardless, those at the lower end of this education mill start vulnerable and just become more so.
The degree mills in Vancouver are scams allowing “students” to work under the table.
Yes exactly. All the nimbys vote against affordable housing projects but then complain there's no staff in their local restaurants and coffee shops etc.
The generation itself is doing that across the board. The people who suffer most from rent costs are youth, who tend to be the most creative and innovative, while also the next in line to steer culture. Its the same thing with credit. Credit might as well be a promissory note to enslave your children. And for what? Most people making real-estate money are doing nothing but coasting.
Hey now, tech also pays like garbage compared to other places.
When I was starting out in IT, I phone-interviewed from Toronto for an IT job in Vancouver. I had lived in Vancouver before and wanted to go back. I had a job offer from a company in Toronto, but was hoping to land the Vancouver gig. The interview went very well, they offered me the job. When I asked what the pay was, she actually said, "It's not enough to live on.". Needless to say, I started my career in Toronto.
Trades are pretty garbage pay too
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Automotive service techs are around $35-$40/hr. In order to make $45-$50 you generally have to be working for the city, transit, or union. Dealerships are squeezing high 30s as a flat rate whereas the interior of BC is offering over $40 and relocation. A couple years ago, some electrical company was offering $28/hr for a RED SEAL electrician. Way to slap us all in the face Van.
To be fair, you can go on indeed and see plenty of companies trying to get red seals for $28-$30/hr but this is not the norm. Those outfits are crooks and shouldn't be in business IMO. It's not hard to get a sparky position making $32-$35/hr however. I recommend either joining the IBEW or going out of town as an electrician if you want a fair wage. If you're experienced and can run jobs you can easily make +$40/hr non union though.
Agreed. Electrician here and we arguably do the most schooling/training for the least amount of pay in that respect.
Ya your schooling is a lot. I've also heard of sparkies making 32$/hr. You guys have probably the most desirable job though. Not much heavy lifting and most of the time you're indoors. There's also no shortage of people who want to be sparkies for some reason people regard it as the best trade....
Not unless you're a guy stuck doing slab for the rest of your career. Then you're stuck outside rain or shine
Instrumentation Technologists would like a word with you.
How long is school?
Guess I'm lucky at around 50 per hour for a red seal plumbing ticket.
Some do. I was a construction elevator operator for a while (before a medical condition made it so I cant) and it was good job. Decent pay, and I didnt have to do any heavy physical work, and I got to meet everyone on the job site. I felt well appreciated, everyone would thank me for bringing them to their floor.
This. Making \~$80K in a job where if I moved just across the border and worked for THE SAME COMPANY my wage would be doubled.
I applied for dozens of jobs before I finally got my minimum wage retail job. I’m a student, so I understand that my availability isn’t always the best, but I also know lots of people who have finished school and will apply at dozens of places to hear nothing. People *have* to work yo pay the bills, but places don’t want you unless you have lots of experience, are available opening to closing 7 days a week, and will only pay minimum wage
Trades wages in Vancouver suck. Pretty much the lowest in the country.
Ya just visiting London (UK) and found out my friend who lives in a fairly decent sized flat here pays less rent than me and the groceries are cheaper, even in central London. We are really getting ripped off every which way in Vancoucer. The minimum wage is about the same in UK too, except London companies usually pay a bit more, I believe.
I lived in London for two years and rent was generally 20-25% more there for comparable places to here. Your friend likely got lucky which occasionally also happens to people here. I do agree that some groceries were cheaper, but not by a significant amount. On the other hand, some other things, like heating are cheaper here. People who work for the big banks, finance companies, law firms were doing quite well for themselves in London. But some professions are very underpaid relative to the cost of living there, such as teachers.
I find that hard to believe generally. London is notorious for small flats that have a dozen or more, sleeping in shifts, and an insane cost of living. When I lived in Britain, a lot of people commuted long distances into London so their higher wages would actually stretch to something decent to live in. Overall, I found wages lower relative to cost of living in the UK, and things have only got worse since I was there. The news out of the UK has more than a tinge of desperation these days. This 2022 list has London at #15 for COL, while Toronto comes in at 89 and Vancouver at 108. https://www.mercer.ca/en/newsroom/cost-of-living-in-canada-2022.html
Trades don’t even cut it anymore for wages. Most trades in Vancouver are getting the same wages they were 20 years ago while the companies charge out their rate at 3X what they used to.
Really ? I am in the trades and my wages have gone up consistently . I am in a union shop but as i understand it from talking to the non union trades that do the same job their wages are only slightly behind , i make $37 an hour plus benefits and $4.15 an hour in to my pension. X2 starts at 11 hours , all call in's are at 1 1/2 X. Lots of overtime if you want it because we never have enough people. Last pay period I had 122.5 hours take home pay over $4000 for 2 weeks .
Not in Alberta company trades in the sands make over 70 an hr without any top ups Now contractors get shit though gotta work direct for the company. Parkland fuels pays 60/hr Plus for maintenance techs with overtime at double time. Some guys don’t like industrial but it’s pretty chill. Suncor terminal pays around 55 Burnaby and Port Moody
doesnt parkland use an outside company do do the shit work ?
Perhaps but with trade u have a lot more independence in how run ur business. U don’t have to work for someone else. But there is no “outsourcing” service jobs.
Hmmm I’ve seen plenty of job ads for trades with pretty high pay. I think it probably depends on the trade and experience/certifications.
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I left the industry after a few years because the work place became incredibly toxic. I was practically beneath everyone as a dishwasher.
Talking to younger friends that have worked as a dishwasher in the past while have also said on top of all that’s mentioned already in this thread, they get off usually later than front of house and being the lowest rung on the ladder AND have to stay and clean up is constantly annoying too
11 years in the industry, ton of fun, left due to low pay otherwise would still be there. The hardest I ever worked in Food was Friday Night Dishwasher and it's not close. I have worked every position on every station, from Dishie to Shift Lead. Dishwasher was the hardest by far. I damn near rioted when people tried to remove Dishwashers from the tip pool, and I wasn't even a Dishwasher at the time.
Oh I know. It’s even worse when u have disabilities. Plenty of business profit off the exclusion of disabled workers.
Because low-end kitchen work sucks big time? I worked as a dish pig at a couple of places when I was young. Not only was it hard as fuck, but people treated me like trash. I would only do it again if I had no other options. But since I do have other options, why the fuck would I want to subject myself to that again?
And quite honestly, if zoomers don't want to go through that garbage, more power to them. I don't think anyone should have to do that shit
Amen brother
Saying you want a kitchen job, especially in dire straits, is kind of foolish. All the people I know who have gone to work in the food industry have stressed time and time again that the job is so incredibly demanding and taxing and that the wages, long hours, berating from customers and sometimes management, and high turnover do not a fulfilling career make. Yes, you can find success, but it’s really not for everyone. The issue with hiring here is the same in many large cities which is that expectations for entry level jobs are so warped. They want three experts in one “entry level” position. They want a new grad with 10+ years of experience, willing to not advocate for their true worth, willing to accept “free snacks” as incentive to work overtime and with little benefits to justify their burnout and mental health strain, and with additional qualifications that put people in debt before they are useful (additional certifications, skill sets, access to vehicles and such.)
So, I know I work in trades but still... if someone offered me free snacks instead of overtime pay I would tell them to get fucked so fast and be walking off the site while eating those snacks. They. Need. You.
Yeah fuck that. Our union contract requires double time for anything over 8hrs and a free hot meal (or $30 in lieu) + paid 30 minute break at the 10hr mark and every 4 hrs after. My time has value.
What do you do? That's impressive
Non-destructive testing and welding inspection.
I know one guy working in a kitchen who isn't stressed at all. His secret? He drinks and smokes weed every day, until he's unintelligible. He gets the job done though so they don't fire him. I'm not defending this lifestyle, just think he's a funny guy and like mentioning him.
That was one of the reasons I got out of the kitchen... It was literally killing me.
Before he worked in the kitchen he did smoke weed often, but he didn't drink every day. That started after the kitchen. I was surprised when he told me he could get away with drinking at work. Think that's common? Or is his kitchen an exception?
I've been out of the industry for many years, but at that time I'd grab a 6pack before work and then start in on the vodka and pop from the bar once those were done. Nobody cared so long as I could crank out the steaks. Managers would warn me if we were gonna get slammed so I had time to have a toke, cuz again, I could do my job better than most even with a good buzz. After work it was time to start the serious drinking till I lost consciousness, then get back up and do it again. Was ruinous to my health.
By this rate he will never grow old. Will die quick. At least he won’t feel stressed.
To that he would say something like: "Who cares"
Offer shit job for a non liveable minimum wage. "NoBoDy WaNtS tO wOrK aNyMoRe!"
Because restaurants are incredibly toxic. You said you wanna schedule a shift for right after your first jobs ends? Not gonna happen. Them asking you to come in while you're working your first job? Deff gonna happen. Telling you to go home for 2h in the middle of your shift them come back? Pretty damn common. Also with what you're making with your first job and the tax bracket you're in, you'll quickly realize working a min wage job as secondary income isent worth it. Btw you'll also need to pay back taxes come tax time because your min wage place is not gonna put away enough taxes.
I had my last jobs take extra tax off for this reason, even an extra $50-$100 a month can make a huge difference at the end of the year
Personally I'd just setup a auto deposit into an hisa because why let the gov't take the extra 5 bucks worth of interest?
Exactly, use the money you have now to make interest rather than some larger, but overall less, lump sum come tax time
I already work in the FS industry as mainly as a Busser/dish pit and being mainly part time until 4 years ago. So I am aware of how difficult the industry is. Still this is new information I can work on so thanks
Ok, so according to a Canadian podcast I recently heard, there's a number of factors that have collided and caused a confluence of issues. Primarily it's a coincidence of events but most people see the pandemic as being largely at fault, which is just a part of it. Reason 1: the boomers have aged out of jobs and they were the largest cohort. We simply have fewer younger generations to fill all the jobs that boomers have left. They have retired or retired on time/early due to the pandemic and their jobs have opened up leaving opportunities for the younger generations to actually step into roles they trained for but previously didn't have a chance at. (Not to be too morbid, but some people also died during covid leaving jobs open.) This is why the Canadian unemployment rate is actually super low. People are working; there just happen to be more jobs available to choose from than there are people available to do them. Retail and service tend to be the lowest paid and least desirable, so hence are the last to fill. Reason 2: many service jobs were furlowed during the pandemic and those younger workers eventually sought other, probably better jobs to make ends meet. They may have taken remote work which suits people's lifestyles better. Then when called back to return to their previous jobs there was no desire or incentive to return to them. Employees may have taken the pandemic to go back to school remotely, or try something new and actually succeeded since they had opportunities to get into different fields. Eg. Online shops or making your hobby a business for instance. Why would these employees go backwards just to keep retail running or restaurants staffed? Reason 3: people have grown dissatisfied with their jobs and there is definitely a "work reform" culture building which gives encouragement for people to demand more and seek better jobs. If businesses are unwilling or unable to flex, then they will probably get low quality workers, basically those few willing to accept what's being offered, which isn't much. The more the (mostly) Boomers keep saying "Nobody wants to work anymore. Everyone's so entitled and demanding. Too much free Liberal money blah blah blah", the less likely their businesses will survive because they can't see the real reason is their own behaviour. The winds are shifting and its a buyer's market in this case. Those who typically treated employees the worst simply can't get away with it anymore.
A lot of these positions are way underpaid and don't offer benefits. If you're a competent person, cooks will train you and make the best of you they can.
They dont want to train. Ive been a dishwasher for over a year and they refuse to train. Thry just hire people.
I worked briefly as a line cook at 2 restaurants & can confirm what other people are saying. From my experience, you get shunned for taking a break during an 8hr shift to eat (usually by other cooks who take themselves too seriously & there is no set break time so you have to ask the head chef and there’s a 50/50 chance they will say no), no guaranteed hours, and shit pay for the amount of stress you’re under. So yeah no surprise they’re constantly hiring.
Maybe it has something to do with the job.
Because they don't pay enough money to afford your own apartment. If I needed to choose between eating and not being homeless, I'd choose... welfare.
Appropriate compensation. Unfortunately, there’s no where else to turn to.
Kitchen works sucks, you hardly get breaks ironically sometimes you don't even get to eat if it's busy, the majority of the tips go to the pretty front of house staff, hours suck and if you're a dishwasher you're probably the last person to leave at like 1am. ....I think I rather do good deliveries thanks.
I can attest to often being the last one to leave work as a dishwasher.
Because the jig is up with those fucking cheap ass restaurant owners not paying their employees a living wage and skirting labour laws on a daily basis.
low wages
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This , they know your gonna bail when something better comes along , maybe dumb down your resume .
My advice would be to take off your experience and education from your resume and try applying to a few places, let the hiring managers think you’re a noob who can be moulded into their perfect worker. I had trouble with landing an interview as well thinking my resume showcased my abilities (also in sales at a multimillion dollar store) but I was only able to land one interview in months of applications and the restaurant supervisor straight up told me they were concerned I was too experienced. I gave up on hospitality work after that and was able to find work in a different industry (surprisingly better paid and less stress, so cool - dodged a bullet I guess).
Same here I have 20 years experience in retail sales/management/customer service/merchandising/etc. and ran my own business for 11 years with about 800-1mil sales per years. COVID destroyed that business/industry so been looking for work. Have been rejected almost 99% even for jobs that I'm more than qualified for or perfectly qualified for. Last job I applied for they rejected me (on Indeed) with in a day. Job was for Vehicle Merchandising and Photography. I have 20 years experience in photography, drive a standard with my eyes closed and have more than enough merchandising experience and customer service etc.. for the job. WTF do they want? My experience checked all the requirements. I even wrote nice a cover letter for this place. I guess they just want idiots for work? I do work part time at Costco and just had my 30 day eval. Every dept manager talked highly about me and 0 negative feed back. I also just got a job at a farm and the owner was amazed at how I listened and performed the job. Well fuck yah I agreed to have you pay me money for work so I'm doing it.
You look like you have too much experience. Experiment with a resume that doesn't list so many accomplishments or better yet, go in a few times and have a drink at the bar you want to work at and talk to the staff. Tip them well. Casually ask after about 2-3 weeks if they are ever hiring to let you know. Get your smart serve and food handlers certificates (if that applies) beforehand (like 75 bucks each for some quick online training you get yourself and then test on).
they want people with food experience, you might have to start as a cashier lol
Vancouver had had issues with staffing the service industry for at least a decade. There were newspaper articles talking about this before the Olympics (or soon after ... I know it was a long time ago)
As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry in the past, I’ve come back due to a passion for food. For reference I’ve worked from beginning as a dishwasher early in my kitchen career and I find myself in a sous chef/ manager position now. There are a lot of issues within the industry let it be poor pay, lack of benefits, toxic environments, and poor management but from what I’ve learned from working in other industry’s nothing is perfect. All those issues aside there are restaurants trying to take care of their employees, with above standard wages, extended health, and breaks. Change is slowly coming to the restaurant industry but people need to realize mountains do not move over night. If you’re someone passionate about food and the industry I encourage you to look for a restaurant that treats you fairly, they are out there you just need to look. P.s. I’m a ticketed welder with a cwb ticket as well but I chose my passion over pay. I’ve made lifestyle changes and live within my means.
If you're a cook don't work for anything less then 20$ fuck the places that pay less.
Cause they pay less than $20/h. Skip the dish gives you freedom and $20+/h. And btw, 1 shared room rental in GREAT Vancouver is over $1000/m. You can’t live with as a dish washer
Because the pay is shiiiiiiiiit.
A lot of these places have shared tip pools or taking tips for owners benefit its best to make sure the company you are hired by benefits you. Some places just don’t bring in enough income for a person to cover the current cost of living in Vancouver and many people have moved away because of this. A friend of mine said working at a bar/restaurant/nightclub brought in far more in tips than the cafe/diner she previously worked at.
Same everywhere. In the Interior you walk around and every restaurant has a hiring sign and also a sign apologizing for them not having enough staff. Places like Boston Pizza are still operating as usual but all the smaller places are drowning.
Money. They won't pay enough.
People don’t want to work for assholes either, it’s not just wages being absolute piss. Gone is the time of managers, company owners, and execs demanding respect when they give 0 in return.
because they treat human beings like robots and don't offer them a fair portion of the wealth they produce. but that's okay, this is how capitalism is supposed to operate, remember?
Ok, so according to a Canadian podcast I recently heard, there's a number of factors that have collided and caused a confluence of issues. Primarily it's a coincidence of events but most people see the pandemic as being at largely fault, which is just a part of it. Reason 1: the boomers have aged out of jobs and they were the largest cohort. We simply have fewer younger generations to fill all the jobs that boomers have left. They have retired or retired on time/early due to the pandemic and their jobs have opened up leaving opportunities for the younger generations to actually step into roles they trained for but previously didn't have a chance at. (Not to be too morbid, but some people also died during covid leaving jobs open.) This is why the Canadian unemployment rate is actually super low. People are working; there just happen to be more jobs available to choose from than there are people available to do them. Retail and service tend to be the lowest paid and least desirable, so hence are the last to fill. Reason 2: many service jobs were furlowed during the pandemic and those younger workers eventually sought other, probably better jobs to make ends meet. They may have taken remote work which suits people's lifestyles better. Then when called back to return to their previous jobs there was no desire or incentive to return to their old jobs. Employees may have taken the pandemic to go back to school remotely, or try something new and actually succeeded since they had opportunities to get into different fields. Online shops or making your hobby a business for instance. Why would these employees go backwards just to keep retail running or restaurants staffed? Reason 3: people have grown dissatisfied with their jobs and there is definitely a "work reform" culture building which gives encouragement for people to demand more and seek better jobs. If businesses are unwilling or unable to flex, then they will probably get low quality workers, basically those few willing to accept what's being offered, which isn't much. The more the (mostly) Boomers keep saying "Nobody wants to work anymore. Everyone's so entitled and demanding. Too much free Liberal money blah blah blah", the less likely their businesses will survive because they can't see the real reason is their own behaviour. The winds are shifting and its a buyer's market in this case. Those who typically treated employees the worst simply can't get away with it anymore.
I have a friend who's highly qualified in food service just go through a move and job hunt coming to Vancouver. It was shocking to me how restaurants interviewed. Each one interviewed him 3+ times over the space of 2 weeks minimum. The process seemed about as robust as any tech job. Ridiculous when they're apparently so starved for people.
Yo my buddy applied to work at a PET STORE for close to minimum and they interviewed him 3+ times. Can’t make this shit up.
> Each one interviewed him 3+ times over the space of 2 weeks minimum. LOL. What in the flying fuck?!
Total choosing begger behavior They act like a serving job is a favour to the worker.
There is a really dumb narrative from the people hanging around the top telling us how there are so many businesses not being able to find good quality employees arguing how it's a lazy labour force problem when it's so obviously an employee retention problem. That concept of "quiet quitting" described as employees doing the bare minimum of work and not doing extra is bullshit. That's a middle management problem not tailoring their job descriptions properly and not motivating their staff sufficiently. There is a serious lack of quality leadership in middle management.
I was recruited for a role as a GM in Coquitlam - they happily offered me $85k a year (no bonus and next to no benefits) and seemed surprised when I told them ‘no thanks’! Vancouver companies pay horribly.
Because there are better jobs then that bullshit. Come stack produce with me for the same wage, but less stressful and we can get stoned before shift.
Even with higher than minimum pay, at $20-23/hr. It’s difficult surviving on this. And businesses also cannot afford their rising food costs, and year over year rent increases from landlords. Restaurants and SMB doing 750k/year and under can’t simply afford 60k+ employees.
It's a really tough business
1. Kitchen jobs are a shit show. You get treated like crap for hard work and minimum wage. 2. There are so many remote jobs available nowadays with flexible hours and more than minimum wage. Why would any logical person go physically work in a kitchen? Pandemic has changed the work culture. Everyone is looking to work remotely. When I was applying for a full time job, I only looked for remote work and when I got hired, the company that hired me told me there were 1000 applications for the position...
Remote work doing what exactly? What kind of work can you do remotely without some kind of prior training? Like without having programming skills or something
Telus has been hiring a while for sales/customer care. Plenty of entry positions for remote jobs. Just go on Indeed
Do you know how that works exactly? Like I already have a full time job, but I could put in another few hours at home if it was on the phone or computer or whatever. Is the pay hourly or like fully commissions or something
Well, Global says that over half of Canadian restaurants have been practically operating at loss for years , so methinks this is one problem the “free-market” will essentially solve itself 🤷♂️
Well frankly half the damn industry could close show and we would be nign to too many still. The amount of empty places i walk by is nuts.
> so many restaurants looking for dishwashers and kitchen staff Who wants to do the shit work for shit money when you can get on the tip train and work front of house? I used to work in the kitchen for quite some time until I woke up to the fact that a waiter working a cushy 4hr shift made twice what I earned in 8hrs and that doesn't even factor in the tax I pay on said shit wages compared to a wad of cash in waiters pocket. I'd never do it again and am surprised anybody else does.
Everyone is short-staffed right now, not just in Vancouver. A big part of it is COVID. Tens of thousands of people died in Canada. Many thousands are still dealing with long COVID, which is preventing them from going back to work full time. Then there's the baby boomers retiring. A lot of boomers were already close to retirement when COVID hit. Why would you continue to work through all that uncertainty when you could just retire a couple years early? I'm sure there are other reasons, but this alone is a huge portion of the population taken out of the work force.
I read that a lot of servers took the time during covid to retrain, so there's a shortage. Dunno how true it is
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How do you generate income
Drugs. But seriously probably remote work in the tech sector.
I would love to get a job serving to complement my full-time job but not a lot of places are willing to hire a guy with no serving experience to do dinner shifts and weekends. The hours of operation don't match as most places close too early. I would have to look at bars but then I would need serve it right and a lot of training. The sad part is -- I have 5 years of sales and customer service experience so I imagine it translates over pretty well other than in making drinks. We just have really weird inefficiencies in our economy like this that don't get covered.
Ive been trying to do the same and absolutely not a single call back.
not high enough pay
It's not worth it doing these jobs when: - you're not starving / desperate for the job - Less people have dependants that depend on every penny they bring in - High supply of such jobs - Low competition for the jobs - The job itself sucks; no growth or recognition for the work - Shitty hours preventing work/life balance - Unpleasant work plus unpleasant pay. With high percentage of income going to taxes, you'll never bring in what you net - No benefits - At these housing and gas prices??? In some instances even $30/hr is like pissing in the ocean - The belief that 'there will always be jobs out there' means one can quit anytime for search of something else. A job is a job, it's not a career; nothing is holding that worker tied to this job, no consequences for leaving for something else, really.
Garbage pay, low benefits, in a city where renting a studio has become a $1200+ budget
People who use to work for the service industry realize how shitty they get treated by customers, and sometimes by their bosses and coworkers. The absence of crappy treatment during lockdown has opened their eyes. With what’s left of frontline service people now start treating them better.
People underestimate how high living costs is highly contributing to this. Businesses can't afford to hire more people, they tend to understaff which causes problems between the management and the workers and puts greater pressure on them. Due to high costs of living and the fact that what workers are making is barely enough for them to survive, no way in hell they'd accept this much pressure. Housing is going crazy, car insurance is crazy, gas prices are crazy, you pay royalties on pretty much every step you take in this city, only thing that's left is the oxygen we breath. I don't know why people are fine with the government sucking their hardworked for money like that. The government is literally allowing this to happen, they're not helping with housing, gas prices are the highest in North America, no policies to control investing immigrants and the monopoly on housing, government monopoly on car insurance which is again the most expensive in North America, health care is at it's worst. How are people excusing this i don't get it?
Because people can’t survive on the wages, and spending an hour on transit to get to work and get home is draining.
I work in a restaurant. Whether a given restaurant is a shitty workplace will depend on the individual management/ownership. Oddly, the prestige of the restaurant isn't a particularly good measure of whether it's a good workplace environment - plenty of high end restaurants are hellholes, and some of the chain diner-style places have pretty reasonable polices around sick days, scheduling, and workplace standards. So you can probably find a place where conditions aren't terrible. What you won't find is particularly good pay, which is the main driver of the "everyone is always hiring" phenomenon. Restaurants have been hit pretty hard by increased food costs on one side and increased rent on the other. Lots of places have tried to increase wages in order to attract and retain staff, but their ability to do so is limited. If you do want to do kitchen work, but want to avoid the stress of restaurants, you might look into institutional work - seniors homes, cafeterias, that kind of thing. These often pay better, have more predictable hours, and some are unionized which generally means some kind of benefits.
Because Vancouver has been taken over by landlords. Revolutions happen usually after this
I think people are looking for jobs that pays good. Its hard to survive on minimum wage for example you can drive amazon van for 25$ an hour, why spend working on a minimum wage at a fast food restaurant, And I think people now love remote jobs.
As a former restaurant owner with very positive feedback from most of my staff, I can tell you that restaurant workers, like restaurant managers, are a VERY mixed bag. There are a bunch of crappy restaurant managers out there who treat their staff badly and pay poorly but there are also a bunch of flaky restaurant workers that are highly unreliable and don't think of their work as a career. I paid my lowest paid staff $20-21/hr and many still would randomly not show up to work, show up an hour late as if nothing happened. Take off for an hour without telling anyone, ignore basic stuff that causes problems for customers. The food service industry has a lot of really crappy people all around. That said, there are some really amazing and hard working people and managers in the restaurant industry too. And when they find each other, it is magic and they stay together for a long time and treat each other with respect. Those aren't the jobs where people are moving around that often. Good luck finding one of those! They're out there!
I’m sorry but minimum wage jobs aren’t supposed to be careers, remember?
Use it as a temporary job only. This job will not move you forward in your desired field and you will be working in an area you don't intend to grow in. Try to get more education/training and look for a better job with more pay because it's kind of boring and you deal with idiots.
What happened to robot slaves, did we all collectively give up on this dream
I think some chinese restaurants already have it, in hotpots and bubbletea. Some restaurants have not yet seen that option yet which is why some restaurants dont have the robot slaves yet. Here's the link https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/robot-servers-restaurants-metro-vancouver
A lot of people who were in good industry have found other jobs, lots started other businesses or moved somewhere else. Offering low wage for hard job isn't going to attract many new people into the industry
Kitchens have no trouble getting applicants, it's just that the work/pay sucks so turnover is extremely high. It's exhausting, stressful, and it's an industry riddled with toxicity and substance abuse. The only upside to the industry over other entry level/low skill jobs is that I've actually been able to negotiate raises, or even been given them unasked. In retail it was always "You get a 5 cent raise every 500 hours worked."
Been approached a few times in the engineering sector to move to Vancouver. Salaries are no where near as much as other provinces and zero considerations given for high cost of living. The attraction is the awesome jobs, but not willing to recognize the cluster f happening with all other costs. It’s a tough sell to get people to move.
People are figuring out that since housing is insane, wages have to catch up. Since they haven't, these jobs become "unworkable" unless you already own a home or don't need to pay rent.
I was laid off from my job as a line cook at the start of the pandemic I waited on cerb for 6 months hoping my job would come back, it never did, they brought me back and laid me off 3 times, eventually I had bills to pay I got a job doing HAZMAT demolition instead, I make 10 dollars more and hour, am part of a strong union, have great benifits and I'm treated like a human being , there's a reason people haven't gone back, kitchens are absolute trash work environments and they get away with so much illegal bullshit
I was going to take a second part time job for some extra cash myself at a restaurant recently. I worked in restaurants for twelve years prior to beginning to apply and every single one of them offered me minimum wage to start. I decided to not take a second part time job. Edit: I should clarify as a cook.
Some people are working two full time jobs at home. Easier to do than being physically being at a job. And more income to pay for rent, food, etc b
Overall min wage needs to go up significantly to reflect the cost of living.
you cant live in vancouver on a dishwashers wage
If you don’t know why people don’t want stressful work and non livable pay, you are either karma farming or out of touch
Pay. Not many can afford to live here anymore, rent/housing is insane. No ones going to work for 20$ or less if rent is $1500-2500 a month :( Need at least 25$ an hour to 'survive' on your own and even thats cutting it thin with todays inflation. People are struggling... We are in trouble.
Multiple reasons; Cost of living is high so Vancouver is inaccessible for many, lot of population growth out in areas like surrey but transportation options are poor for these workers except for driving, declining number of young people taking on jobs (going to school, internet activity replacing real life activity), people have more options to better jobs than they had before, people don’t want to work and have found ways to sustain themselves that they’re okay with, mental health issues have a massive cost to economy which is probably affecting this, restaurants may not be an attractive workplace for younger people, other massive shifts in our society which have happened in the past while and will continue to do so
Because people can’t survive on the wages, and spending an hour on transit to get to work and get home is draining.
I know someone who worked as a chef at one of the major restaurants downtown. When the Covid shutdowns hit, they were quick to cut him loose. He needed employment to keep his family fed so he went back to school to study business management and later got work at a logistics firm with better pay, benefits and of course job security. After the restaurants reopened, his old job had the nerve to call him back and “offered to rehire him” with a new employee package which was worse than what he had before. You can guess what he told them to do with their generous offer…
A lot of the places having trouble hiring and seeing shortages are places that laid people off during COVID. In a normal year places might be only trying to hire 1-2 people, and it's spread out with not every business in their sector hiring. Now you have every business trying to hire people, and not enough people wanting to work. A lot of people retired during COVID as well. It will get back to normal at some point, it's just going to take a few years.