Worker shortage further hurting NYC restaurants

Big Apple restaurants can only serve half their pre-pandemic indoor capacity — and yet they still don’t have enough help to make it work.

Eateries are getting crushed by a shortage of workers both in kitchens and on the floor despite sky high unemployment and a growing vaccination effort. It’s part of the national hiring crisis in many industries, which The Post’s Lisa Fickenscher reported this week. “It’s  as bad as I’ve ever seen in my 17 years in New York,” said Bernard Collin, a partner in the Upper East Side’s Orsay, La Goulue and Bar Italia. He blamed much of the labor shortfall on “government assistance where people would rather stay home and pocket their cash.”