With workers scarce, N.B. hotels, restaurants climbing back from COVID forced to cut hours

In the 26 years that Rick Jackson has worked at the Gables Restaurant in Saint Andrews, N.B., this was the first year the business didn’t receive a single job application.

Jackson says Gables has tried putting up Help Wanted signs, ads in the local newspaper and job postings online.

Nothing has worked.

“The only applications we receive are from outside the country,” said Jackson, the restaurant manager. “No locals at all — like, nobody in Canada at all.”

The restaurant, which would normally be staffed by 30 to 35 employees, has been running on just 17 workers this summer. To adjust to the shortage,