Employers Work Around Shortage of Help
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With Orange County’s unemployment rate sinking to an eight-year low of 3%, employers are scrambling to fill entry-level positions.
The trend has caused at least one business owner, Ruben Villavicencio of R & M Food Services Inc., to alter his expansion strategy.
“The pool of available people has shrunk to a critical point right now,” said Villavicencio, whose Brea-based company owns 17 Millie’s Country Kitchens and three Mexican restaurants called the Whole Enchilada.
Next month, he will open an express version of the Mexican eatery in the food court of the Puente Hills Mall in Industry. The smaller restaurants require only preparation space. Customers sit in a common dining area, which is maintained by the mall.
The result: Villavicencio only needs 10 employees instead of the usual 35 that a full-service restaurant demands.
“If it works, we’ll do more fast-food Mexican places,” he says.
Daryl Strickland covers tourism and small and minority business issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5670 and at [email protected]
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