EYE ON BUSINESS: ‘We have no idea where the people went’ | News, Sports, Jobs

The Boyer Septic staff, comprised of Jeremy Mihill (seated) Jocelyn Mihill (left), Jen Mihill (center) and Travis Lewis, smile together at the Boyer Septic headquarters in Lake Placid on Wednesday, April 20. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — Who’s hiring in Lake Placid? Right now, it seems like most businesses are.

“Now hiring” signs are nearly ubiquitous in Lake Placid — they’re posted on roadsides, taped up in Main Street store windows and stuck on company car bumpers. Job fairs are coming around on a regular basis these days, too, from the recent Job Search Days organized by the Lake Placid Business Association to the upcoming job fair at Lake Placid Middle-High School next month. One Lake Placid business owner has even taken the employee search to social media.

Susan Berkowitz Johnson, co-owner of The Breakfast Club, Etc. on Main Street, started the “Who’s Hiring Lake Placid?” Facebook group in March, hoping that employers and prospective employees in Lake Placid could use it as a more modern, central place to connect.

It’s undeniable that the pandemic changed the way people work in Lake Placid and beyond — initial shutdowns left people without jobs and left employers without revenue. But Berkowitz Johnson said that when her business reopened, she couldn’t find employees like she used to.

Berkowitz Johnson and Breakfast Club co-owner Heather LePere used to find employees by posting on Craigslist or putting up signs in the club’s Main Street window, but Berkowitz said that hasn’t worked since the pandemic started. Berkowitz Johnson and LePere own another Breakfast Club location in Key West, Florida, where she said, “the only way everybody hires” is through a Facebook group called “Who’s Hiring Key West.” She said that if an employer posts that they’re hiring in the group, “15 people come running through the door.” Why not try to replicate that in Lake Placid?

Jocelyn Mihill and Travis Lewis pump out a port-a-john at the Boyer Septic Headquarters in Lake Placid on April 20. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

The “Who’s Hiring Lake Placid?” Facebook group has nearly 500 members already, and dozens of local hotels, restaurants, breweries and Main Street businesses have posted in search of workers. Berkowitz Johnson has hope that the page will eventually make a difference in the staffing crisis here like it has in Key West.

The Key West Facebook group has 16,000 members.

“I think over time it (“Who’s Hiring Lake Placid?“) will grow and grow just like the Key West page did, and hopefully it becomes the way in which we hire,” she said. “But we’ve got to do something to get the word out here, because it’s insane. There’s nobody walking in the door for jobs.”

Berkowitz Johnson added that if it weren’t for the hundreds of J1 students who staff businesses in Lake Placid each summer, she’s not sure local businesses could function.

While posts from hospitality-based businesses tend to take up most of the Who’s Hiring page in Lake Placid, showing the demand for workers who serve tourists, local businesses that serve local residents are struggling just as much to find help.

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Essential businesses

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It’s not just Main Street employers who are struggling to find staff. It’s also the plumbing, electrical, construction, HVAC and other businesses that provide the services locals need to meet their basic needs. Jen Mihill, co-owner of Boyer Septic, said that demand for her company’s services is growing, but they don’t have the employees to keep up. It’s not just keeping them from serving more of the community and growing their revenue — it’s costing them money, too. Boyer had to turn down a contract this year because they didn’t have enough staff to provide the service.

The thing is, Boyer isn’t looking for a fleet of people to join their team. They just need one guy to drive a truck and pump out port-a-johns, Mihill said, but they can’t even find that. And because Boyer is operated by Mihill, her husband, their daughter and one other employee, she said they don’t have time to attend job fairs or job search days and hunt for workers. They’re too busy working to keep their business going.

It’s especially crucial for businesses like Boyer to find the workers they need, Mihill said, because people who live here need those services.

“People need us,” she said. “I don’t need a coffee at Starbucks, unfortunately. … But if your lines freeze, or your septic tank backs up, you need us. If your roof leaks, you need a construction company.”

She said these are often the businesses that get overlooked in hiring efforts around Lake Placid.

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Hard on employers, employees

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Being short-staffed isn’t just hard on businesses, Berkowitz Johnson said. It’s hard on the employees who do work at those businesses.

Because so many businesses are short staffed, some employees have to work overtime. That can lead to burnout. On the other hand, being short staffed can force a business to limit its regularly scheduled hours, which isn’t fair for employees who are counting on the money or for customers who need or want the services provided by that business. The Breakfast Club has closed every Wednesday since the start of the pandemic because of staffing shortages.

“We don’t want to be,” Berkowitz Johnson said. “We want to be open, but we do not have the staff to be open on Wednesdays without overworking people, and we’re not willing to do that. We’re willing to take the hit on Wednesdays to make sure that our staff is taken care of.”

Boyer provided 170 port-a-johns for the Ironman Lake Placid triathlon last year, and Mihill said she cleaned all of them with her husband.

“There was just nobody else,” she said.

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Housing issues

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The pandemic has also exacerbated the local housing crisis, a trend reflected nationwide. It’s becoming harder to find affordable housing in areas like Lake Placid, where limited housing stock, a pandemic-related real estate boom and a robust vacation rental market have driven up real estate and rental prices. That means it’s getting harder for people who work here to afford living here.

A 2020 Housing Needs Assessment in North Elba and Lake Placid found that just 34% of the town and village’s workers live locally, with 761 workers left without housing within the town or village. With not everyone able to afford to live where they work, It’s become common for people who work in Lake Placid to commute from places like Saranac Lake, Wilmington, Jay, Keene and even farther.

While the Who’s Hiring group places focus on Lake Placid, Berkowitz Johnson said people from surrounding areas as far as Peru or Malone could make a hiring post or look for jobs in the group.

Berkowitz Johnson said Key West has a similar problem with housing, it’s just on a larger scale since the population there is bigger. Many employees who work in Key West can’t afford to live there. But while the housing crisis is still prevalent in Key West, the Who’s Hiring page is helping with the staffing crisis. The housing crisis here won’t be solved overnight, but Berkowitz Johnson hopes the Who’s Hiring page in Lake Placid could provide a solution to staffing issues like it has in Key West.

Mihill said she’s lived here her whole life, and it seems like everyone’s disappeared. She said the housing crisis obviously affects the workforce since housing prices are usually beyond the means of a family in Lake Placid.

Still, she said, the “million dollar question” is: where have all the employees gone?

“We just keep saying we have no idea where the people went,” she said. “It just seems like everybody is struggling.”