This summer season is starting to feel normal again for hospitality businesses.
John Zirkle, president of the Virginia Beach Hotel Association and corporate director of operations for hotel management company Harmony Hospitality, said the resumption of the State Department’s J-1 student visa program has allowed Hampton Roads hotels to beef up staffing for positions like housekeeping and food and beverage workers.
But Zirkle said some hotels still don’t have enough workers to open their restaurants for lunch as the Oceanfront begins its busy summer tourism season.
“Staffing is still a huge challenge for hotels,” Zirkle said.
More than three years after the coronavirus pandemic began to shut down schools, businesses and many aspects of public life, Hampton Roads employers in several industries are still struggling to fill positions and fully reopen all aspects of their operations. Still, several in the tourism industry say operations have improved since the early days of the pandemic recovery.
During the pandemic, different industries were affected in different ways, Peter McHenry, a professor of economics and public policy at William & Mary, said in an email. As demand for hotels and airlines decreased, he said many available in-person jobs, like in retail and health care, experienced understaffing as health concerns were prioritized for many families.
As a result, workers dropped out of the labor force. From January to April in 2020, the Hampton Roads labor force lost nearly 24,000 workers, dropping from 859,316 to 835,594 people, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By March 2023, the regional labor force had 877,537 workers, showing a return to pre-pandemic levels.
Still, certain jobs have continued to face labor shortages as workers transition to other sectors. Some industries that relied on seasonal workers were particularly impacted by the visa caps during the pandemic.
“Reduced work visas and immigration made shortages more acute — that was particularly important in hotels, restaurants and amusement parks,” McHenry said. “We’re seeing more visas granted and more immigration recently, though, and those changes are reducing shortages.”
Then-President Donald Trump had suspended the student visa program in 2020. President Joe Biden let the program resume in March 2021, but it’s taken time for participants to return to Hampton Roads. In 2022, Virginia hosted 8,312 temporary nonimmigrant J-1 visa holders, still down around 18% from a pre-pandemic figure of 10,157 visas in 2019.
As companies struggled with labor shortages over the past few years, employers have turned to new strategies to remedy the problem. McHenry noted increased wages, sign-on bonuses and flexible and remote schedules as ways to recruit workers.
“Attracting, hiring, training and retaining workers takes time, so quick fixes aren’t available,” McHenry said. “But employers facing labor shortages have strong incentives to adapt their workplace policies and improve compensation to increase employment. I suspect jobs with current shortages will see higher wages and more flexible work practices over time, but demographic changes like more immigration can also resolve shortages.”
At Virginia Beach hotels, operators have tried to attract prospective employees with flexible schedules, salaries of at least $15 an hour and creating schedules every few weeks as opposed to every week, Zirkle said.
But competition for hourly workers is fierce. Gig economy jobs like food delivery offer very flexible hours, Zirkle said, and make it tough for the hospitality industry.
At D. Nachnani’s Coastal Edge retail stores, staffing levels are close to their pre-pandemic highs, the owner said. His stores have been able to hire recent graduates, making it easier to staff all positions. Nachnani, who is also president of the Atlantic Avenue Association at the Oceanfront, said other members are telling him similar stories.
It’s going so well, he said, that businesses haven’t had to resort to holding job fairs like the in the previous years following the pandemic.
Staffing at Food Lion is in better shape than it was a year ago, said spokesperson Katherine Kirby in an email. Kirby said the grocer, which employs hundreds of people across the region, is well prepared for this summer.
Colonial Williamsburg still has unfilled positions, spokesperson Ellen Peltz said, but it also has a pool of more skilled applicants than in years past.
“We attribute that to our efforts to foster an inclusive, engaging and exciting work culture, offering fair pay, benefits and opportunities for employees to learn and grow,” Peltz said in an email.
The organization employs some foreign exchange students through the visa program, but Peltz said the goal of their hiring is to create mutually beneficial cultural experiences for both the students and Colonial Williamsburg, rather than to fill labor gaps.
Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com
Gabby Jimenez, gabrielle.jimenez@virginiamedia.com
