According to the National Restaurant Association, 79 percent of its members “currently have job openings that are tough to fill.”
Courtney Ogorek does not need to be told that.
Finding and keeping employees “has been very difficult.”
“I wish I had the answer,” said Ogorek, who with her husband, George, own Corky’s Dawg House on Asheville Highway. The specialty hot dog shop “has been through a lot of people” since it opened in 2021.
“People,” she added, “are not coming through the door to fill out applications.”
Ogorek’s story is a familiar one in Brevard: there are not enough cooks, waitresses, waiters, dishwashers and front-of-the-house workers. Even with wages in the $15 range — plus tips — just about every restaurant approached by The Transylvania Times needs more staff and wants them now. A low 2.9 percent unemployment rate in Transylvania County does not help matters much.
With her hair pinned back as she flipped burgers and turned hot dogs on the grill at Rocky’s, owner Dee Dee Perkins said she’s “never seen it so bad” when it comes to the ever-ending search for workers. Perkins also owns Bullwinkle’s on Main Street, but on a recent Friday she rolled up her sleeves to toil alongside her son-in-law Brian and Draco, a new hire on his second day on the job.
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