Poll: Why Do Wyoming Businesses Have A Hard Time Finding Workers?

Finding employees for many businesses, especially in the service industries, seems to be an ongoing problem across the country.

Here in Wyoming, businesses such as convenience stores and restaurants continue to operate on reduced hours, often closing overnight or on certain days. And with many businesses wanting to take on extra help for the holidays, the problem is likely to get worse.

And although there are a lot of theories as to why it's such a problem, no one has really definitively proven what the issue is.

Some people say it's a matter of the ongoing COVID pandemic and people not wanting to take the chance of getting sick. Others take the opposite side of that issue, saying workers don't want to be pressured into getting vaccinated.

Others say that the wages being offered just aren't enough to cover costs like transportation and childcare.

Some people say workers these days have just gotten lazy, or that it's too easy to collect unemployment benefits as opposed to going out and working. While Governor Mark Gordon ended Wyoming's participation in the extra COVID-19 federal unemployment benefits in May, that doesn't seem to have ended the problems of hiring employees in Wyoming.

So we thought we would get your opinion. Why do you think getting employees is such a challenge for many businesses these days?