LANSING, Mich. (Great Lakes News) – If you’ve experienced slow service and long wait times at a restaurant or hotel in Michigan recently, you’re not alone.

A survey from the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association (MRLA) shows all of Michigan’s banquet facilities are understaffed. Meanwhile, 97 percent of hotels need more workers along with 89 percent of Michigan’s full-service restaurants.

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Justin Winslow, President and CEO of the MRLA said the organization is launching a hospitality industry-specific job board to fill those positions.

According to a Facebook post, operators are posting new open positions on the MRLA Job Board each day.

Winslow says many cooks, waitstaff, and hostesses found other jobs during Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 shutdowns, which specifically targeted the restaurant industry. An executive order issued by Whitmer in March 2020 axed in person dining at all Michigan restaurants and clamped down on bars, theaters, and casinos.

A slow reopening of those businesses began several months later.

In November 2020, Whitmer issued a “three-week pause” through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), citing skyrocketing COVID-19 cases. Among other things, that order shut down face-to-face learning at schools and halted in-person service at bars, restaurants, and similar industries.

Whitmer and MDHHS eventually reopened certain sectors of the economy while the “three-week pause” restrictions for Michigan’s hospitality industry lifted last month.

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