Great Barrington, Massachusetts is a bucolic town in the beautiful Berkshires, and the home for the American Institute for Economic Research. During my recent visit this June, a group of us ventured out for a meal downtown on a Wednesday evening. To our surprise, it was nearly impossible to find an open restaurant to enjoy a sit-down meal. An Indian restaurant had closed its indoor seating and was takeout only. Another place was only open 4 days of the week, while a third establishment had restricted hours. We noticed other groups like us on foot, wandering from place to place, only to find one darkened storefront after another. "Staff needed" signs are hung not only outside restaurants, but also at the assortment of trendy downtown retail shops.
Great Barrington is not an isolated example, and I've noticed small, tourist-oriented towns throughout the country have similar "help wanted" signs. In my visit to Hot Springs, North Carolina a few months ago, two restaurants were sharing some of the same wait staff. The first place was only open Sunday through Wednesday, while the second was only open Thursday-Saturday. In conversations with the managers, they all told us the same thing: "We can't get people to work for us." The same thing to happened to us in the popular town of Bar Harbor, Maine last summer.
Great Barrington, Massachusetts has a shortage of workers that makes it challenging to staff its shops and restaurants, like many areas across the U.S.
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