Hard times for fast food: Labour shortage in N.L. has owners, workers struggling

This is the first instalment of Help Wanted, a three-part series by CBC Newfoundland and Labrador examining labour shortages within the province's restaurant and food service industries. 

Help Wanted signs are everywhere in Newfoundland and Labrador restaurants, with both owners and workers feeling a staffing shortage so acute it's forcing businesses to slash hours — and even full days — to cope.

Elizabeth Moss made the leap from full-time mom to small business owner in June, opening a Robin's Donuts on Torbay Road in St. John's. She knew there would be late nights and early mornings, but with a skeleton staff on hand, she said, the grind is harder than she ever expected.

"My workday — it can range anywhere from nine to 16 hours, and that's seven days a week," said Moss, who says she had one day off between June and mid-September.

Once, finding herself alone on a shift, she closed the store for a few hours. "I can't do it by myself," she said.

Her workers have "truly been phenomenal," she said. But they are mostly students and have only been able to work part time since school began, and even then are juggling schedules to help keep Robin's running

Emma Cole, who attends Memorial University, spent one Monday at Robin's from 7 a.m. to noon, then headed off to math class and a few errands, before returning to the shop for another shift.

"It's a job. It has to be done. Just seeing how we don't have enough workers for everybody to maintain a normal part-time schedule, for me I can juggle that so I am going to come in and help where I can," Cole said.

Workdays like that are "not fair to them, or us either," said Moss, with full-time day staff in desperate short supply.

Paul Evans can commiserate, having shaved opening and closing hours off his Subway and Wingin' It franchises in Grand Falls-Windsor.

"You end up struggling, really, just to make it through some days because you're just so understaffed," he said.

This summer, he hired workers as young as 14, as they were the only ones applying. "You post a job, you get one resumé. You might get two, if you're lucky," he said.

It's a similar story at Ches's Famous Fish and Chips on Freshwater Road in St. John's, where part-time students are shouldering a big load, but not enough to make the business work as it once did.

With three employees the norm for most of this year, down from six, manager Vicki Barbour said they've stripped the menu from many items just to ease the load. "We've had to go back to basics," said Barbour.