PINE BUSH- As the region’s labor shortage continues, companies like East Coast Industrial Services are turning to lawmakers for help and to offer solutions to their greatest business struggle: finding enough workers. With the available workforce across the region at levels below those recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic many businesses are being forced to reduce capacity and turn away customers due to staffing shortages.
“I need at minimum six full-time employees right now,” said Jay Presutti, Vice President and General Manager for East Coast Industrial Services in Pine Bush. “Unfortunately, the applicants are just not there and when they do apply, oftentimes they don’t show up to the interview.”
East Coast employs approximately 40 full-time employees. The company’s primary services include parking lot sweeping, landscaping, portering, and roadway sweeping.
On July 15th, East Coast organized a job fair in an effort to fill open positions. Despite advertising the event online as well as with the state department of labor and the chamber of commerce, not a single applicant attended.
After the failed job fair, Presutti reached out to state and local elected officials from both parties to arrange a meeting to discuss the worker shortage he and other small business struggle with each day. State Senators Rob Rolison and James Skoufis, Assemblymen Karl Brabenec and Brian Maher, and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhuas, along with several other local elected officials attended a meeting at East Coast to discuss the matter.
Presutti believes employees self-electing out of the workforce is a major contributing factor to the worker shortage.
“Public assistance and unemployment were meant to bridge the gap until you get on your feet,” said Presutti. “I believe one of the reasons businesses can’t find workers is because in many cases, people are getting paid pretty well not to work.”
Presutti also said that applicants have asked to be paid fully or partially “off the books” so that they could continue to receive unemployment and other benefits.
One solution, says Presutti, is better communication between employers and government agencies. Presutti believes that if employers had a way to report work turn-downs and applicants who failed to arrive for their interview, and those reports were tied to pubic assistance benefits eligibility that there would be more individuals available for work.
“Companies are leaving New York and are closing down due to a lack of help,” said Presutti. “If there were a way for employers to notify all government agencies when someone turns down work or doesn’t show up for an interview, there would be more accountability. There is no reason why taxpayers should be supporting someone who can work, but chooses not to.”
As of June 2023, Orange County’s unemployment rate was 3 percent, which is lower than the county’s long-term average of 5.7 percent.
