Palm Beach County has record-low unemployment and economic experts say our area is one of the most desirable places for new businesses than anywhere else in the country.
But with housing prices going up, there are still some challenges employers face when hiring new workers.
The company Gulfstream Hospitality, which is opening some new restaurants in Palm Beach County, says the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast was the most desirable location for these new openings in the entire country.
The company has already opened Atlantic Avenue Yacht Club in Delray Beach, and is planning to open Jupiter Grill in Harbourside Place in April and the Lantana Cabana in Lantana next year.
To apply for a job at Jupiter Grill, send an email to info@thejupitergrill.com
“Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast area are so great with tourism and retail,” said Dan Morris, partner with Gulfstream Hospitality.
“You have this influx of people who have traveled now to Florida and you’re seeing in this area, more specifically, South Florida booming, so it was a very logical idea,” Morris said.
“I think that people who are coming down here are not going, ‘I want Miami,’ or ‘I want Fort Lauderdale.’ They want to start in the Palm Beaches and move up,” said Paul Niedermann, corporate executive chef for Gulfstream Hospitality.
At Careersource Palm Beach County, agency leaders say not only is there record-low unemployment in the county, but new data shows more than 36,000 new businesses of all sizes opened in Palm Beach County over the last year. Employment experts say there are now two open positions for every unemployed person in the county.
“While other areas of the country are recovering from COVID and other woes like that, we’ve just been going gangbusters here so it’s been a great opportunity not only for businesses, but job seekers as well,” said Tom Veenstra, vice president of administration for CareerSource Palm Beach County.
Veenstra says there are still obstacles in our area, the high cost of the housing making it harder for some companies to find new employees. However, he says companies are making adjustments to bring those new workers in.
“Employers and/or recruiters are being challenged as never before to find qualified talent to fill a lot of these jobs, but employers have been doing their part, increasing wages, increasing benefits, doing flex time, some people do hybrid work at home,” Veenstra said.
“You have to increase the wages that go along with it. You’ve seen that on menus throughout the area if you dine out, the price increase, the cost of goods increase, all of that has now elevated the employee wages,” Morris said.
Both restaurateurs and career experts say the type of typical hospitality employee is changing as well.
“The original older careered employee in the hospitality industry has now exited so it’s going to take our job as a management team and our job as the owners to teach the technical skills to create the next hospitality worker, I believe,” Morris said.
“The original older careered employee in the hospitality industry has now exited so it’s going to take our job as a management team and our job as the owners to teach the technical skills to create the next hospitality worker, I believe,” Veenstra said.
