Los Gatos Weekly-Times Photograph by Jeff Kearns Got Workers? If you're fishing for service-sector employees, they're not biting Story By Jeff Kearns The signs are all over the town: Help Wanted, Position Open, Now Hiring. ... But while there are plenty of opportunities to pick up a part- or full-time job behind the counter at any number of retail stores in Los Gatos, few applicants are walking in. At Twig, manager Cathy Brown says the family-owned business is dealing with a short staff by using family members to cover shifts on nights and weekends. And with Christmas just weeks away, she's struggling to fill two positions, one full-time and one part-time. "It's been a matter of supply and demand, and right now there's not a lot of people looking for a retail job," she says. "Our employment market is such that most people are employed, and if they aren't they soon will be." Brown says she recently received an application from someone looking for a job, and when she called the next day, the person had already been hired somewhere else. This holiday season, it seems, Los Gatos merchants just may be asking Santa for a few spare elves. "It's tough going into the holidays, because everyone's hiring," says Ellen Wayker, owner of adjoining specialty pet stores Purrsnickety and Bow Wowzer. Wayker says she's also looking for students to fill in various spots on the schedule as she gears up for the holidays, but the students just aren't coming. "Retail's not a very high-paying field compared to others, so it's hard to support yourself in this valley," she adds. "The hard part is having enough to cover for unexpected absences, sickness, vacations, and it's put a strain on us this year." Standing behind the counter during the afternoon lull at Delizioso, owner Steve Zanardi says his attempts to beef up his staff of about nine aren't going well. Looking for someone to work behind the counter, he's had ads running in local newspapers for two weeks; he also has posted positions on the job board at Los Gatos High School, and has a help-wanted sign hanging in the window. And after a handful of phone calls, not one applicant. Brown, Wayker and Zanardi are hardly alone. All up and down N. Santa Cruz Avenue, around town and up and down the valley, it's getting harder and harder to fill service-sector jobs while everyone's riding the wave of a hot economy. And in high-rent areas like Los Gatos, it's even harder, especially for merchants who usually hire local teens and twenty-somethings looking for a part-time paycheck while they're in school. "It's an understatement that it has a lot to do with the area we're in," Zanardi says. "The younger generation doesn't want to work, and they don't have to in this area. Then, when you do find someone, you have to struggle to keep them." But that's only half the problem. "The thing is, we're a small business and we can't afford to pay a lot, and there's a ton of jobs out there in the food service industry," Zanardi adds. The problem diminishes a bit in the summer, when students on vacation swell the payrolls in all kinds of industries. "They're willing to work more than during the year," Zanardi says, "but you only get them for eight or nine weeks, so you have to take what you can get." It's not exactly a critical situation at Delizioso, but the existing staff--and Zanardi--must pick up the slack, which means longer shifts and less time off. To keep employees from leaving, Zanardi has upped wages for some employees, which he says helped a little bit, but it's still hard for him to keep some people excited about a job that doesn't pay much more than the minimum wage. Owners and managers around town say the same things: It's not a crisis, but the crunch to keep a full staff has become a lot harder in the last year or two, and there's one culprit everyone is the first to point a finger at: Silicon Valley. For October, the unemployment rate in Santa Clara County in October was only 3.6 percent, according to the Labor Market Information Division of the state Employment Development Department. The county is on the low side statewide, ranking eight among 58 counties (Marin has the lowest, at 2.2). Unemployment in the state during October averaged 5.6 percent. The current rate in the county is low, but it was even lower this spring, when it hovered around 2.9 percent from March to May. In the last year, the county has added about 1,700 new jobs in the service and retail sectors, bringing the total up from 128,600 to 130,300, or about 1.3 percent. Projections forecast even more increases. But while Silicon Valley gets national attention for all the jobs the high-tech industry has created, most of the jobs have been created in the service sector in recent years, according to John Leopold, associate director of Working Partnerships, a South Bay organization that tracks labor trends. And it's not just in the valley. "If you look at job trends, retail and food service is the fastest growing sector in the state," Leopold says. Temporary workers are also one of the fastest growing employment sectors. But that doesn't necessarily translate to a perfect scene for the employees that are filling those jobs. "Employers can't afford to pay their employees enough to keep people on and provide benefits to their employees," he says. Working against the expanding retail and service fields is the skyrocketing cost of living in the valley, where the median cost of a one-bedroom apartment broke the $1,000-per-month barrier earlier this year. Housing costs are increasing 20 percent per year, Leopold says, while rents are going up 28 percent per year. Leopold says those numbers come straight from the report on labor trends, "Growing Together or Drifting Apart," which Working Partnerships published this summer. Additionally, he says, on top of the high cost of living, five of the 10 fastest growing jobs in Silicon Valley pay less than $10 an hour. "Wages have remained stagnant in Silicon Valley for most people," he adds. "And people can't live on those jobs that pay five to seven bucks an hour." Short staffs, however, aren't always the rule. Some store managers and owners say they aren't having any problems at all, although many of these stores have relatively low turnover and try to pay their employees a little better than average. Time Out clothing owner Ginger Rowe said she was trying to fill a spot on her staff, but wasn't worried. But, Rowe says she usually hires employees she's heard about from friends or other retailers, and doing so this year has been harder than in years past. Sheri Lewis, executive director of the Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, says she's heard several members bring up the topic of employee shortages before. "There are no people available," Lewis says, "A retail merchant has a hard time getting retail help because there are just so many high-paying jobs in this valley." Lewis says about all the Chamber can do is refer merchants to the job fair at West Valley College. Marta Mora, who works as an assistant in the Career Programs Center at West Valley, says it's a job seeker's market out there. "There seem to be more jobs than people, and more opportunities for people to shop around when they're looking for jobs," Mora says. At Los Gatos High School, Joe Winstead is the faculty member in charge of the job board that hangs in the main hallway. "It's definitely harder," he says. "We have jobs listed, and people will call up and say, 'is my job still listed?' because they haven't gotten any response." At Any Mountain, a small chain of outdoor clothing and equipment retailers which opened a store downtown in September, manager Eric Solberg says it's the situation across the board. "There's just a lot of jobs available now," Solberg says. As a manager, Solberg says he sees employees come and go from the Any Mountain stores--usually coming out of college and going into the high-tech sector. "It's definitely the high-tech," he says. "There's a lot of employment available now, as well as quick career advancement opportunities." Although Solberg says employees like working for Any Mountain because it's a fun work environment, their moves over to the technology sector are usually a function of the high cost of living in the area. "A lot of them say it's just too expensive to live here," he says. At another new store, Borders Books and Music, which recently opened at Old Town, the scene is a little different. Assistant manager Andrew Gunther says he's trying to staff up for the holidays, but otherwise, he's fully staffed just weeks after opening the store. Maybe it's the perks. Compared to most retail employers, Borders goes above and beyond. After just 30 days, all full-time employees get stock options, a medical plan and a 401(k). Stocks are available at a fixed price, and vest in three years. "I think it's unheard of," Gunther says. Specialty retail store owners say it's something they just can't do for their employees, because there isn't enough cash flow when the expenses are taken care of. "It's really impossible," says Kurt Lemons, owner of Upstream Flyfishing. "The margins just aren't there, and we can just barely stay competitive for regular salaries." Another perk for Borders employees, Gunther adds, is employee discounts on merchandise. "The hope is that people work in a job like this not just because of the wages, but because they truly love books and music," he says. Even with all the bonuses normally associated with companies with a more high-tech bent, Gunther concedes he's been to the job fairs and put the ads out in the papers, "but it's always a challenge." Before moving to Los Gatos, Gunther spent four years at the Borders on Union Square in San Francisco, where he says there's a different kind of person looking for work. "People who live in the city are willing to put up with poverty and unemployment because they want to be there, so they don't mind a business that can't afford to pay terribly well. "People come to the valley for the jobs, and right now, there's not as many people looking for jobs." Cathy Ferrato, the manager at the Great Bear/Los Osos Cafe, knows what he means. For her, the labor pool is strictly what's available, and right now, it's a pretty shallow pool. Her staff, which is usually at about 30 employees, is dwindling to somewhere under 20. And even her old standbys, high school kids, aren't working out all that well--maturity levels, she says, are tough to reconcile with a business that needs to be staffed from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and those same kids are even more pressed for time, as homework, extra-curricular activities and kickin' it compete for seemingly fewer hours in the day. "I don't think a lot of kids we're hiring are taking it that seriously," Ferrato says. As the manager, Ferrato finds herself covering nights and weekends, which competes for her own time as an undergrad at San Jose State. Ferrato, who started at the Great Bear six years ago, says she's still there for the same reason as many of her employees: the flexibility she needs as a student. But she's getting by juggling schedules in the kitchen, handing out a few raises and trying to be as cost-efficient as possible. One of Ferrato's employees, Rachel Shipman, has been at the Great Bear on and off for two years, and now she's back to make a few dollars while she's taking a semester off of college in Texas. The flexibility and low-stress environment brought her back, but it won't keep her; she's trying to get back to school as soon as she can. And when she leaves, it's one more spot to fill on the schedule. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 25, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.