An economist expects Michigan’s hospitality industry will struggle to find workers and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.Christopher Douglas is a professor at the University of Michigan-Flint.
He estimates the state’s bars and restaurants lost more than 64 thousand workers in the state’s last coronavirus shutdown.
Douglas expects the industry will have a hard time refilling those jobs says “How many people are still out there a year plus into the pandemic who are able to wait tables at bars and restaurants versus people who found other jobs in different sectors or maybe people are who are still hesitant to going back to work over COVID fears.”
Michigan’s hospitality industry has been among the hardest hit by government restrictions put in place to fight the pandemic.