12/16/2022

Trump, COVID-19 Slowed Down Immigration

Now employers cannot find workers

Alonzo Arteaga’s title is general manager of a small hotel in Topeka, Kan. But these days, he doubles as a housekeeper, making beds, vacuuming floors and laundering towels to fill an ever-worsening worker shortage.

Like other businesses around the country, Senate Luxury Suites is struggling to keep going without critical employees. The hotel is down to three housekeepers, half the number it had before the pandemic, and Arteaga blames a years-long immigration slowdown, which he says has made an already tough situation worse.

"It's been three years of trying absolutely everything," said Arteaga, who has raised pay by about $3 an hour and offers discounted monthly rates to employees. "It feels like the workers really aren't there."

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