Gulf Coast job boom blooms in wake of Hurricane Katrina

NEW ORLEANS -- The message is clear on storefront marquees, brightly colored banners and the handwritten signs merchants taped inside windows across this battered city: businesses reopening after Hurricane Katrina have a surplus of jobs and not enough workers to fill them.

The shortage is obvious at the city's fanciest hotels, where a lack of staff means maid service is offered just once a week. It is just as glaring at fast-food restaurants, where long lines of cars snake through parking lots because most have only enough workers to operate drive-through windows. It's virtually impossible to pass through any functioning part of town without seeing "Now Hiring" posted somewhere.

"Two months ago if you were looking for a job, it probably wasn't that easy," said Darren Aucoin, manager of a Shoe Carnival store in Gretna, a New Orleans suburb that saw minimal flooding and was relatively quick to get power and water restored. "Now if you can't find a job, you're not trying."

Burger King, which first reopened its New Orleans restaurants by busing kitchen crews about 80 miles from Baton Rouge, has now taken the unprecedented step of offering $6,000 bonuses to hourly employees agreeing to work full-time for at least a year in the metropolitan area.

Most of the people who've been able to return to New Orleans have been either wealthy or in the middle class, in part because their neighborhoods were damaged the least -- leaving a hole for business owners who depend on unskilled labor.

"The service industry and unskilled labor jobs are the ones really in demand and the people in that category have not come back," said John Trapani, a professor and vice dean at Tulane University's business school. "There will be a shortage of labor until population starts to return and who knows what percentage is going to return and when?"

The demand by service businesses for workers is set against a parallel demand for people to work in hurricane cleanup. Some employers have turned to immigrant workers from Central and South America to fill those jobs.

With thousands of people from Mississippi and New Orleans scattered across the country, scores of jobs remain open.

All along Highway 49 in Gulfport, Miss., are signs advertising jobs. Most are variations on this theme: "Now hiring for all positions."

One of those looking for workers is Rolf Howard, the general manager at Applebee's, which is operating with half its normal staff despite seeing its sales more than double since the storm.

Howard was able to reopen a week after Katrina but many of his employees have relocated and can't return because there is no place to live. To replace them, Howard says, he can no longer afford to be picky.

"We're not even being superselective. We can't afford to. We are literally hiring every day."

In New Orleans, a large "Now Hiring" banner hung in Shoe Carnival's storefront window. Aucoin said he had increased staff by nearly double from prestorm levels because of a spike in sales, with some shoppers replacing shoes destroyed in the floodwaters.

Residents in areas where power and water are back have returned faster than most stores could reopen, leaving those first few that were up and running crowded with customers looking to replace household items or simply to get out of the house for some shopping therapy.

"It really is a great opportunity for businesses that can open to take advantage of this before the city gets back into economic equilibrium," Trapani said.

A Best Buy electronics store had a line of customers out the door earlier this week. A large banner read, "Now hiring at all locations." The store had set up a computer station a few feet inside the front door for applicants.

Kelly Cahill, controller at the Arden Cahill Academy in Gretna, said the private school put many of its regular employees' families to work as they tried to clean up in time to reopen for students this month.

"We've had anybody's boyfriend or husband, anybody that wanted to come by -- basically anybody that needed work, we gave a job to for cleanup," she said.

The few restaurants open have been packed. They've had to shorten operating hours because of curfews but still have to lengthen servers' shifts because there aren't enough employees to do a complete shift change in a given day.

"We're pulling 12-hour shifts," said Nicole Blais, a server at Houston's in suburban Metairie. She was brought in from a New Orleans location that hasn't been able to reopen. "When they reopened they only had a couple servers back, so they started hiring, but whatever people they didn't have to train they were desperate for."

Houston's is still hiring, she said, and with the restaurant always jammed, the money's been good for people, like her, who rely on tips.

In downtown New Orleans, hospitality industry workers are in short supply, especially in the hotels now trying to house as many relief workers and contractors as they can.

Le Pavillon, distinguished by its huge columns and ornate interior of gold-painted crown molding and giant crystal chandeliers, was operating with about 20 percent of its staff this week. Along with reduced maid service, all meals are buffet style with disposable plates and utensils.

"We're doing better than most hotels. A lot haven't opened yet because they have absolutely no employees. There's no place for them to live," said Ed Morin, the hotel's managing director.

Pressure will mount on businesses to increase lower-level wages to entice hourly workers back, Trapani said. They'll also have to help employees address immediate housing needs, and some already have.

At Le Pavillon, some key employees who lost their homes have been allowed to live in the hotel temporarily. Morin said he hasn't decided how long they can stay.

Pressure will mount on businesses to increase lower-level wages to entice hourly workers back,

Something tells me they'll get tax incentives too....And the jobs will still be unacceptable...

"yeah, but all the jobs are going to illegal Mexican immigrants."

Sounds like the illegals are the only ones applying. As a Mississippian, I'd much, much rather our own people do the work, but many of them left because they have no roof over their head. And a lot of the former casino workers have moved to Tunica, Vegas or Atlantic City. So if the only people who will rebuild this state are Mexicans willing to live 10 to a trailer, then this is one rare situation where I support using foreign labor.

It's like that here (St. Tammany Parish, north of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans). The stores that are open at all are open for shortened hours. Most restaurants are still closed and the ones that are open have loooong lines. There are literally no other entertainment establishments open at all other than the handful of restaurants.

The curfew was finally lifted the other day, but there's no place to go. The movie theaters, bowling alley, everything's closed.

Help wanted signs are everywhere.

Our population has grown from about 200,000 to 300,000 since Katrina, so traffic is a nightmare. With the population growth, housing has dramatically decreased because entire neighborhoods are gone and the south end of our city was flooded badly so those houses stand but many aren't livable.

Alnick, I don't know where you live, but I live in East St Tammany and there are plenty of Mexican laborers around here. I see them cruising all the time in their trucks with mexican phone numbers on the side. Also, there is no longer a curfew and there are plenty of places to eat and no long lines anywhere in stores. You should get out more becuase things have really improved in 2 weeks. The only thing bad is the traffic, but even that is only bad at the normal rush hour periods and only in some areas like around the mall and downtown Slidell.

I live in East ST as well. I did state in my post that the curfew has been lifted. Thursday, I think it was. As for traffic, it's still bad. It took 35 minutes Saturday at about 6 pm to get from a subdivision just west of Thompson road on 190 to the I-12 onramp at Airport Road. What's that, about three miles? There are some restaurants open, but more closed. Saturday or Sunday there was an hours-long line in the Wal-Mart off the service road. I've seen no Mexicans.

I'm happy you've missed some of the traffic and lines.

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