Suspect the potential employee pool varies depending on locale. During Covid people in urban areas took a lot of their frustrations (with masking, social distancing, product shortages) out on minimum wage workers who were saddled with extra duties, sanitizing surfaces, equipment etc, not to mention being expected to work extra shifts because of people who got sick, or quit (maybe due to a loved one being diagnosed or dieing from Covid).
On top of that Covid hit around the time more people were realizing what Mike Rowe and i have been saying for years: Utility workers, public transport workers, factory, trades people and food service workers are essential to keeping society running, but don't get nearly the respect or compensation they deserve. Covid made it more obvious. So a lot of people may be rethinking, may be looking for other options.
My daughter worked 7 days a week for over half of 2020. She manages a small hotel in our small town, for that period the state mandated that motels be reduce the number of rooms they rent per night. Good thing because until the experts figured out how long (really shorter than they first thought) this virus survived on various surfaces it gave housekeeping more time to thoroughly clean the rooms. And guess who ended up doing that several days a week? My DD! The difference between her and a lot of such workers was her bosses appreciated what she was doing. She got an unscheduled raise during that time and a bonus. And they verbally acknowledged how much she was doing. You think many of the chain stores and franchise eatery managers did?
