Hours and services cut: Myrtle Beach businesses have worker shortfall without foreigners
The coronavirus, combined with a tourism season that hasn’t been nearly as impacted by it as anticipated, have Grand Strand hospitality businesses searching for employees.
They just lost another possible source that has been relied upon for decades.
Those businesses aren’t likely to receive any relief through a pair of international visa programs that have provided thousands of workers each summer.
The J-1 student visa worker and cultural exchange program and the H-2B visa worker program provide approximately 3,000 seasonal workers to the Myrtle Beach area each year, according to Stephen Greene, president and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Hospitality Association.
Those programs, and others that issue temporary nonimmigrant visas, have been suspended by President Donald Trump through the end of 2020.
“Employers are just struggling to try to find workers,” Greene said. “So it will be a pretty strong impact because businesses are already struggling to have the same amount of workforce in place that they did before all this occurred.”
Visitors may experience a decrease in service on many levels on the Strand this summer because of the shortage. Many businesses also have cut their hours.
Nonimmigrant visa workers fill jobs throughout the Strand in businesses including restaurants, hotels, amusements, attractions, grocery stores, beachwear and other retail stores, and as lifeguards. H-2B workers often fill housekeeping jobs.
“It’s a big part of the overall seasonal workforce,” Greene said. “Those two programs are very important and we have used them in the past to help fill the needs of positions that we have within the hospitality and tourism industry.”
H-2B visas are good for up to nine months, while J-1 visas are up to three months.
Some J-1 and H-2B workers already had their visas processed prior to Trump’s initial shutdown, so there are some currently working on the Strand. But it’s a fraction of what would normally be here, and the J-1s are likely leaving as soon as travel to their countries is again permitted.
Alex Ibanescu, a local representative for J-1 sponsor Cultural Homestay International, normally provides close to 300 students for the Myrtle Beach area. This year he has supplied four with two more on their way. He said all had visas approved prior to the shutdown of embassies and consulates where they receive them. Many are still closed.
“It’s already kind of late into the summer, to where if they reopen mid-July or late July it’s not going to make a difference,” Ibanescu said.
The policy
Trump extended on Monday Proclamation 10014: Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak.
He initially signed the proclamation on April 22. It was in effect for 60 days and would have expired by Monday.
Trump’s extended order on Monday stated: “Under ordinary circumstances, properly administered temporary worker programs can provide benefits to the economy. But under the extraordinary circumstances of the economic contraction resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, certain nonimmigrant visa programs authorizing such employment pose an unusual threat to the employment of American workers.”
While the reasoning may be applicable in many parts of the U.S., it is not on the Strand, where the workforce is already stretched thin this summer.
“I know a lot of people feel these guys impact American jobs, but a lot of these jobs are at hourly rates that a number of Americans who have been furloughed or been laid off, it’s not in their wheelhouse,” Greene said.
There is also an annual supply of seasonal domestic workers — often college students — who come to Myrtle Beach to work for the summer who don’t appear to be coming this year.
Trump further explained the reasoning for the continued suspension of the J-1 program, which generally consists of international college students.
“The May unemployment rate for young Americans, who compete with certain J nonimmigrant visa applicants, has been particularly high — 29.9 percent for 16-19 year olds, and 23.2 percent for the 20-24 year old group,” Trump’s proclamation states.
Exemptions will be made for workers essential to the United States food supply chain, those whose entry would be in the national interest as determined by the Department of State or Homeland Security, and holders of previously approved visas.
“We’re still trying to figure out are there going to be any exemptions made based on the language of the proclamation,” Greene said, “but obviously it’s going to have an impact one way or the other on these programs, specifically for our area.”
Myrtle Beach tourism leaders have already contacted Michael James, a branch chief who oversees the Myrtle Beach area for the U.S. Department of State, to let him know the workers are still desperately needed, get clarifications on the proclamation, and see what can be done.
According to Greene, national organizations such as the American Hotel & Lodging Association and National Restaurant Association have also contacted the state department requesting clarification and more exemptions that may allow areas that need the workers, such as Myrtle Beach, to get them.
Many Grand Strand businesses are already shorthanded for several reasons related to COVID-19, including employees having the virus or having to quarantine, a fear of returning to work around others, parents staying home with their children rather than sending them to day care, and a willingness to remain unemployed.
The federal government’s emergency $600 enhancement to weekly unemployment checks for coronavirus relief continues through the end of July and has served as a deterrent to some employees returning to work.
“I can tell you there is no such thing as unemployment. It doesn’t exist,” said Mark Lazarus, owner of three Strand amusement parks. “We’re hiring every day and we’re not paying minimum wage by any means. … You still have a lot of people who won’t come off unemployment to seek jobs.”
Demand remains
The flow of tourists hasn’t slowed nearly as much as analysts predicted once area hotels reopened in May.
A release from the STR hospitality analyst group earlier this month said leisure spots in Florida, Texas and South Carolina had the nation’s highest occupancy rates.
A study by the Coastal Carolina University Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism found Strand hotel occupancy rates from June 7-13 to be 74 percent, which was down just 7.4 percent from the same week in 2019, and hotels were at 91.6 percent of capacity on the weekend nights of June 12-13.
“When all this happened, the expectation was occupancy would remain pretty flat for the year,” Greene said. “So we have a higher-than-expected occupancy and lower-than-expected workforce.”
The Myrtle Beach Hospitality Association has hosted virtual job fairs, worked with Horry County Schools to recruit high school students, and worked with the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce in attempts to fill jobs.
Lazarus, who owns and operates the Wild Water & Wheels and Myrtle Waves water parks, as well as the Broadway Grand Prix family go-kart park, normally hires about 150 J-1 students and has yet to hire one this year.
“We were hoping maybe in July, which would get us through August and into September, but now with this new [suspension], it’s going to hurt everybody,” Lazarus said. “What we’ve had to do is adjust our hours of operation and basically run one shift, and just keep hiring until we can get enough [employees].
“We’ve got business. People are here. They’re vacationing, which is a great thing. But we’re not offering the 100 percent experience we would like to because we’ve had to cut our hours.”
Wild Water & Wheels opens one hour later from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the Grand Prix operating times have been cut three hours daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. until July 2, when Lazarus hopes to extend the hours to 11-10. He had been open from 11-11. “That’s where I’m struggling the most is at the Grand Prix, that’s where I usually get the most [J-1] workers,” he said.
Lazarus said he uses the J-1 students for numerous positions including track attendants, cashiers, cooks, front line workers and maintenance, and said he is offering between $9.50 and $13 per hour in most positions depending on experience. He has been filling a lot of the water park lifeguard positions with local high school students.
Matthew Brittain, president of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, which operates 10 Strand oceanfront hotels/condotels, said the positions of housekeeping, front desk, house attendant that supports housekeepers, and maintenance are most impacted at hotels by the suspension of the visa programs.
Even with the return of about 90 percent of Brittain Resorts workers who were furloughed in the spring and influx of about 200 H-2B workers primarily from Jamaica, Brittain said some of his properties are short 10 or more employees.
“Even though our long-term, year-round employees came back very quickly, we couldn’t hire and still are having trouble hiring anyone else, so that’s the problem,” Brittain said. “… When the Cares Act $600 ends at the end of July that could improve things, but that’s the situation we’re in.”
In part because of shortages and in part to limit personal contact to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, daily maid services other than fresh towels and trash removal, valet parking and bellmen services are now available more upon request than as a standard service at Brittain properties.
Jerry Lomeli, managing partner of Senor Frogs at Broadway at the Beach, said he normally hires dozens of J-1 students per year, and their loss has resulted in the restaurant condensing its menu. “It’s impacting everything,” Lomeli said. “I usually hire between 30 and 35 students a year, and this year they’re not going to come.”
Ibanescu said he’s receiving about 30 requests per week from businesses asking about the availability of visa workers. “They’re really struggling to where they cannot open to full capacity, or can’t open certain stores in certain locations,” Ibanescu said. “They don’t have any help and the locals are not willing to take those jobs. … Obviously now it’s way worse than it has been, and even last summer when we had a full season and everything was fine a lot of businesses still needed more staff.”
Cory Wagner, who owns Sunfun Vacation Rentals and has been involved in the J-1 program for nearly two decades, said he’ll lose rentals to nearly 500 J-1 students this year, and is receiving multiple calls daily from employers looking for students to hire.
“When you’re trying to maintain a service level that you need to and you’re sitting at the staffing levels we are, it’s a challenge to ensure the experience we’re hoping to provide,” Greene said.
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 11:25 AM.
