Seasonal Job Picture Shows Employers Smiling

I was prepared to hear moaning and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I was calling retailers and restaurateurs in the San Fernando Valley for tales of woe from employers unable to find enough help during the holiday season to stock stockings and shelve shelf paper.

With the nation’s unemployment rate at historically low levels, some jobs, particularly lower-paying entry-level posts, were going begging throughout the United States, according to news reports. Employers were being forced to offer signing bonuses, or up the pay on what were formerly minimum-wage jobs.

With the year’s main shopping and eating season hard upon us, I was the picture of empathy as I called on local merchants, primed, pen in hand, ready to feel their pain.

Instead I heard this from Mary Wolven, manager of the Canoga Park Mervyn’s: “We had no difficulty at all” filling holiday positions. “We started in October and had a good flow of applicants. So our hiring is completed.”

One of the lucky few, of course.

But then there was this from Paul Jariabek, manager of the Woodland Hills Toys R Us: “No, we did not experience any trouble. We started very early and we were able to staff up.”

And from Mark Cameron, manager of the Burbank Kmart: “Actually, we haven’t had that much of a problem, even though most of our positions are entry level. We put up signs, but we didn’t have to do any massive advertising.”

To be sure, said economists and experts in employment, there are many Valley firms still looking for a few good men (and women), particularly among fast-food operators and smaller retailers.

But for a number of reasons, many employers were able to dip into the Valley’s vaunted labor pool this holiday season and avoid the lonely feeling of some of their counterparts elsewhere.

Janet Jobe, assistant manager of the Glendale office of the AppleOne Employment Service, noted that many Valley firms benefit from freeway-friendly locations.

“People that are in the Valley are willing to travel more within the Valley as opposed to downtown,” said Jobe, whose firm handles mostly office workers. “To get people to go into downtown or Westwood or Beverly Hills is hard. Mileage wise, it might be the same distance [as a location within the Valley], but they just feel it’s not worth it, with the traffic and parking.”

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., noted that the Valley has name recognition and a reputation that helps draw in residents who are new to Southern California, further expanding the labor pool.

“Remember ‘beautiful downtown Burbank’? People may laugh, but that’s a place people know of,” said Kyser. “The Valley has recognition out there, it’s a definable place, whereas if you go to the Southeast part of the county, it doesn’t have the same recognition.

“People know Beverly Hills, Hollywood and the Valley.”

Another backhanded benefit, Kyser said, is the county’s unemployment rate, which at 6.7% is still significantly higher than the national average of 4.4%.

“That’s roughly 300,000 additional people in the labor pool,” he said.

Eddie Okamoto would like to have just 11 of those potential workers come out to his new restaurant, Yamato, in Agoura Hills. He’s been trying for more than a month to find five waitresses, two more busboys (or the more politically correct “table-clearers”), two more sushi chefs and two more general kitchen chefs.

“Right now, nobody is taking off,” said the affable Okamoto, describing his seven-day workweek. “That’s why we need replacements.”

Okamoto, who has been in the restaurant business in the Valley for 16 years, said he’s not averse to raiding the competition for talent. In the meantime, he’ll continue to advertise.

“Nowadays it’s very tough,” he added. “I don’t know why. We [are] advertising, but they don’t come.”

Connie Trimble, president of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the California Restaurant Assn., said smaller and older restaurants often have difficulty filling entry-level jobs because they don’t “look glamorous, like someplace people could make a lot of money.”

Trimble, whose family has operated Barron’s Family Restaurant in Burbank for 36 years, doesn’t see this holiday season as being any different.

“I wouldn’t say it’s any worse this year,” said Trimble, whose restaurant is known for its made-from-scratch pancakes.

“It’s still a constant battle for a little mom-and-pop restaurant to attract quality employees. I think that’s a problem a lot of people have.”

Mel Schulman has had his eye on employment trends in the Valley for nearly 20 years. He, too, sees the labor market as being about the same as in years past.

“We’re getting more orders [for jobs] in at this time than we have in the past . . . and when we do we have a pool of people to fill them,” said Schulman, a manager at the Canoga Park Job Service office of the state’s Employment Development Department.

“There are a lot of matches,” he added. “People are getting the people that they want. We don’t have anyone calling up desperate for this person or that.”

For the would-be employee hoping that market conditions would boost his wages, this is all, no doubt, bad news.

And for the smaller shops and eateries still adorned with “Help Wanted” signs, it’s probably small consolation that their larger neighbors are fully staffed.

If the Valley found itself in the same boat as other regions, bidding up wages to attract much-needed help, would that lead to wage inflation--a possible precursor to price inflation? Economists can debate the implications for days.

Meanwhile, the demand and supply of labor in the Valley seems more or less in balance.

And for some market watchers, that’s a good thing.

“Why? I’m not sure, I can’t really tell you the dynamics of it,” said Schulman. “It’s like quicksilver. You can’t get a good grip on what’s happening other than that it feels good.”

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

* The state runs a computer network matching applicants and job openings that is accessible through the Internet at: https://www.caljobs.ca.gov.

* Also, some local colleges offer job banks that are free to residents of the area. The Pierce College Job Placement Center number is (818) 719-6454. The Job Resource Center at L.A. Valley College can be reached at (818) 947-2333.