MAINE, USA — Many working parents can't go back to the office if they can't find someone to watch their kids, and while there are "help wanted" signs all over the state, child care facilities are also looking for help.
"Family child cares used to be everywhere ... they are closing one by one," Annmarie Marshall, owner of MaineLy Childcare in South Portland said. She is licensed for 101 kids but only has 49 right now.
"That was intentional when we first reopened but now it's because of lack of staff we're not finding quality people who want to work in this field anymore," she said.
She said it all comes down to money.
"I'm competing with McDonald's and KFC offering $15 an hour and a sign-on bonus," she said. Incentives like these are ones that small businesses say they can't afford, even ones that working families will be relying on as parents head back to the workplace.
"My waitlist is about 14 pages long. We get calls every single day you know my childcare is closing in a few months I need childcare immediately," she said.
Marshall is now competing in the job market against the very businesses whose workers would need her child care services, including the hospitality industry, which was hit hard during the pandemic.
"In terms of workforce, the summer season is always a challenge for Bar Harbor," Alf Anderson of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce said.
He said the pandemic is making it even harder to get people to work these jobs because so many people travel internationally to Maine for summer jobs.
"There's just been so much uncertainty with international travel this year, some of those foreign work visas haven't been released and some of the embassies just aren't up and running yet," he said.
Something else many businesses are experiencing—people only applying to jobs for their unemployment paperwork.
"It's frustrating from an employer's standpoint when I take time out of my day to schedule these interviews and, you know, find staff to cover the classrooms to you know get stood up or have people walking in and just not really trying," Marshall said.
She added that she's had people not show up to scheduled interviews, or show up in their pajamas. She said she could be one staff member away from having to close completely as the worker shortage continues across Maine.