3 views of pandemic job loss from Waterloo region workers

By the numbers, 2020 was a devastating year for the local labour market.

Some 16,500 jobs were lost in Waterloo region last year, according to a recent report by the region's community planning department.

The largest share of job losses came in the accommodation and food service sectors. Women, youth and part-time workers were hit hardest.

CBC Kitchener-Waterloo spoke with three people in the region in Ontario who dealt with job loss last year, about the impact it had on them and where they are today.

The manager

Restaurant manager Jake Richards said he's "almost lost count" of the times he had to lay off staff in the last year – and stay home himself. Richards said his co-workers often know the bad news is coming, but that doesn't make it any easier.

"It's hard to get good employees," said Richards, general manager at Loloan Lobby Bar in Waterloo.

"How do you retain them when your industry is almost non-existent?"

Pre-COVID, Richards said the restaurant typically had about 12 to 13 staff on a busy night. He would come in to work around 2:30 in the afternoon to clean, and would wrap up his day around midnight.

Today, he said, both the hours and the number of employees have been roughly cut in half. While hopeful the summer will bring better times, Richards said he still isn't sure when they might get back to a more normal staffing complement.

"I think some people are still a little skittish about going out and dining," he said.   

Richards also has concerns about the long-term impact of the pandemic for the restaurant industry, and whether the current period of anxiety might discourage would-be chefs and restaurateurs from entering the field at all.

"Why would you go to school, get into a hospitality program and come out of it and there's just nothing there?" he said.

The early-career employee

Former hostess Liv Bowen isn't worried about the industry's future at all.

Bowen's first job out of high school was as a hostess and jack-of-all-trades at Rhapsody Barrel Bar in Kitchener. She'd been there about nine months when the pandemic hit and everyone was laid off. By August, the bar announced it was closing permanently.

"I loved working there so much," said Bowen. "Thinking I wasn't going to be able to go back was really hard to deal with, and then realizing the bar itself wasn't going to exist any more was really devastating."

But Bowen says the layoff also gave her time to think about what to do next. She loved her time working in the restaurant industry so much, she decided to enrol in the culinary school at Conestoga College.

Today, she's a full-time student with plans to soon spend six months working as a chef at a restaurant in Banff, Alta.

"I have a really big class," said Bowen.

"I think there's actually going to be a really big boom in the industry – and there's going to have to be, because we're going to have to get really creative."

The mid-career switch

Tiffany Dixon also worked in food service at the outset of 2020 – but in a different side of the industry. She started the year in an administrative role at a local restaurant food supply company.

Her company took a major hit when restaurants shut down in March. She was first laid off temporarily – but by June, it was permanent.

"It was kind of a relief, to be honest, when that happened," said Dixon. "You're in limbo not knowing … It was kind of nice to have that finality."

Dixon started to search for new jobs almost right away. She'd been laid off before and worried what might happen if she left it too long.

In the end, she wound up switching careers altogether and entered the construction industry: it's one of a handful of local sectors that's showing signs of growth.

Today, she works as a dispatcher at a local aggregate pit.

 It's a big change, but she said it's come with plenty of advantages.

"I work hard in the summer … but then I got the winter off, which was great," she said. "I love a challenge, I love learning something new."

While not everyone might take the pandemic as an opportunity to change their path, Dixon said it's worked well for her. She encourages other job searchers to stay positive and keep an open mind.  

"You've got to just take it as it is," she said. "I lost certain benefits …. but I gained so much more with the place I'm working, and I just absolutely love where I ended up."