No one to sit at the register: the labor shortage will meet us in the supermarket line
As the Tishrei holidays approach, food chains are facing a severe labor shortage, with an estimated deficit of 3,000 cashiers. Despite efforts to increase wages and install self-service kiosks, the lack of personnel remains a systemic crisis.
In a few weeks, the Tishrei holidays will arrive, and with them the familiar pressure on food chains, which turns the weeks before the holiday into a real test. We all know the picture: overflowing carts, long lines, and the customer who rightly asks: "Why aren't they opening another register?"
The simple answer is that even if another register is opened, there is no one to sit at it. For a long time now, food chains have been struggling to fill positions in all departments, but the manpower shortage is felt especially among workers in direct contact with the consumer, such as deli workers and cashiers. Even attempts to attract Israeli workers through increased wages, bonuses, and benefits have failed to close the gap, and it is estimated that each of the large food chains is short about 400 cashiers.
Some chains have tried to reduce the shortage by installing additional self-service registers. They alleviate the lines to some extent, but technology alone cannot close a shortage of thousands of workers. To deal with a cumulative shortage of about 3,000 cashiers, additional workers are needed.
However, even the manpower that is already here cannot always be used where it is most needed. The attempt to allow foreign workers already employed in food chains to move to cashier positions has been blocked time and again by the Ministry of Labor. It is difficult to explain a situation in which, on the one hand, the state recognizes a severe shortage of workers, and on the other hand, prevents chains from using workers who are already at their disposal to fill one of the positions where the shortage is felt most of all.
The problem is not unique to food chains, and it is felt in all sectors of trade and services, from fashion stores and retail chains to hotels. For the public, the line at the supermarket is perhaps its most tangible expression, but for businesses, it is a daily difficulty in filling positions, operating shifts, and providing the level of service that customers expect.
This is a systemic problem that requires a personnel policy that fits the needs of the economy. The recent allocation of about 5,000 additional foreign workers for the trade and services sectors is a step in the right direction, but against a demand for more than 50,000 workers in these sectors, it is far from closing the gap between the official recognition of the shortage and the policy in practice.
To provide a real answer, it is necessary to increase quotas in accordance with the demand arising from the field and allow chains to use foreign workers who are already at their disposal in a logical way, including at cashier positions. On Rosh Hashanah, we wish to be the head and not the tail. But if the state does not accelerate the arrival of the workers needed for the trade and services sectors now and remove the restrictions that prevent the use of the manpower that is already here, this blessing may take on a particularly literal meaning this year. In the upcoming holiday, too many Israelis may find themselves right at the tail of a long line at the supermarket register.
Yonatan Primo is the CEO of the Central Chamber for Foreign Workers.
