Labor shortages and supply issues remain the biggest struggle for North Texas businesses, are better days finally coming?

Texas – The staffing shortage has been an issue for almost a year now, something that businesses, especially those local, were affected and are still looking for solutions.

Businesses in numerous states faced this issue and some of them were forced to lower their operations, while some of the were forced to close completely. Some states even cut the weekly federal benefits in June, months earlier than their end date in September, in an effort to help companies with the staffing shortages, but nothing really helped.

While businesses are still struggling with workers, businesses are facing another major challenge, supply shortage. If business owners could affect the workers shortage with increasing wages and other incentives, this is something much bigger and in no way they can help themselves.

President Joe Biden is set to meet with lawmakers and issue an executive order to address the ongoing supply chain interruptions that have been causing product shortages and higher prices for everything from cars to groceries.

The demand increased drastically as soon the pandemic measures were lifted in the early summer and people started to spend more time outside. That led to increased demand of workers and supply and the companies are struggling ever since.

The situation affects everyone, from small local entrepreneurs to major companies with hundreds of thousands of workers. One of those small local businesses is Dallas based Chef Mimi LLC and the owner Meika Johnson who prepared 110 meals a week for private businesses in the pre-pandemic period.

In the recent months, Johnson struggles to find both food supplies and equipment to run the businesses regularly.

“Because the products are short and in demand, prices have gone up drastically,” she said.

The combination of those few issues led to close her businesses since she was spending more time and effort to find supplies, than actually do what she does best, meal prep.

“I used to be able to get a pack of salmon for maybe $8. Now, that same pack of salmon is going to be $17, $18, $19.

This is just a local story, but the same applies worldwide and many major companies are struggling with the same issues.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed the issue Tuesday afternoon.

“The ports and the ability to move goods through ports is certainly one of the big bottlenecks,” she said.

On Tuesday, the Department of Labor released new statistics showing a sharp increase in the number of people leaving their jobs, specifically in the retail, food service, transportation and delivery industries. The most recent data is from August.

What comes as a more alarming fact is the thing that no one really knows when these issues will be solved. Many believe that the once the pandemic is over, businesses will start to operate normally, but experts claim that the effects from the pandemic might be a huge problem for years.

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