Workforce shortage extends to Iowa campuses, too

IOWA CITY — With about 900 workers shy of being fully staffed, the University of Iowa’s dining operation this fall is at only 42 percent of its goal.

Much of that shortfall is in student employees — with between 500 and 600 currently working for the dining operation that when fully staffed has about 1,400 student employees. UI dining also is about 10 full-time non-student workers short of being fully staffed at 160.

“University Housing and Dining is finding it challenging to find and hire employees like many other companies and organizations across the country,” according to UI spokeswoman Anne Bassett. “It currently has positions open for workers across all areas, but most of the vacancies are at all three market places and University Catering.”

In Ames, Iowa State University is experiencing similar staffing challenges — reporting 180 full-time professional and merit employees in its dining operation, about 80 percent to its fully-staffed goal of 226. The ISU Department of Residence has 192 full-time workers, about 87 percent of its 220-employee goal. ISU reported 216 student employees in its housing division — about 80 percent of its student positions. ISU dining has filled about 70 percent of its student jobs for October, ISU spokeswoman Angie Hunt said.

The University of Northern Iowa reported 158 current employees in its housing division, about 86 percent of being fully staffed at 184.

The three regent campuses combined report hundreds of open positions, including more than 30 at UNI, 180-plus at ISU and nearly 840 at the UI — from director and administrative posts to custodians and part-time gigs.

An October 2021 employment profile at the UI shows the campus’ total employee head count is actually up, to 30,009 from last October’s 29,860. A breakdown of the numbers, however, shows some categorical losses — like in tenure-track faculty, unionized health care workers and merit staffers.

Iowa’s regent universities are far from alone in their struggle to find employees, with the nation’s labor shortage making closures, abbreviated business hours and curtailed services commonplace across a range of industries — from dining to retail to health care.

The Wall Street Journal this month reported 4.3 million workers still are missing from the U.S. workforce, now about 17 months into the pandemic. Meanwhile U.S. employers are looking to fill more than 10 million open jobs.

Finger-pointing is rampant among industry experts seeking to place blame for worker resignations at or near historic rates in sectors like manufacturing, retail, transportation and other professional and business services, according to the Journal. Generally, analysts are tying pandemic-related causes — like burnout, new family obligations or more flexible work alternatives — with the “great resignation.”

Campus impact

The UI earlier this month laid bare the impact of the local labor shortage on its athletics operation when administrators disseminated an email to the staff seeking volunteers to fill about 200 vacancies in Kinnick Stadium — positions typically filled and paid through a staffing agency.

When asked about the impact of the massive dining-worker deficit, UI spokeswoman Bassett said some housing and dining areas “have had to make changes to their normal routines to accommodate the lack of staff.”

“For instance, Burge Market Place started using paper and plastic silverware during the weekends to ensure there are enough employees in other sections of the dining hall,” she said.

Each of the thousands of UI students living in the residence halls is required to purchase a meal plan — costing from $1,782.50 to $1,977.50 a semester.

“Living and dining on campus are vital pieces of the student experience and University Housing and Dining is committed to providing quality service to everyone,” according to Bassett.

Entry-level dining positions — like those needing to be filled — include “dining associates” involved in food preparation, serving and cleanup. They also restock food, serve as cashiers, handle customer issues and help with events.

And UI Housing and Dining employs the students who staff residence hall front desks, resident assistants and hall coordinators.

Despite the university’s deep dining shortage, Bassett reports it is fully staffed at 149 in its Residents Assistant operation for student housing, and is just one shy of its goal of 10 full-time hall coordinators.

The RA post pays students $5,000 prorated over a 10-month work period — with other benefits including a credit hour for an RA course, a single room or apartment, full meal plan and $100 “Hawk dollars” per semester.

As for dining employees, the UI raised its starting wage from $9.50 to $11 an hour “to stay competitive with rates in Iowa City and the surrounding area,” Bassett said. Plus, as an incentive, UI Housing and Dining recently announced a sign-on bonus for new workers that pays them an additional $50 for the first 50 hours they work.

Work-study

Coinciding with the student-worker shortage is a decline across all three public universities in work-study participation. Work-study does not encompass all student workers. Rather, it’s a need-based financial aid program that encourages employers to hire qualifying students by covering some of their salaries for hours they work at an on- or off-campus job.

Although students signed up for work-study aren’t guaranteed a job — and have to apply like anyone else — they’re especially attractive to employers who have to pay only half their wages as the program covers the other half.

Where 974 UI students were employed through federal work-study in the 2019-2020 academic year, that tally dropped to 734 in the last academic year and to 697 this year.

At ISU, work-study participation has dropped from 1,092 in fall 2019 to 809 in fall 2020 to 711 this fall. And UNI reports work-study participation down to 274 from 327 in the 2019-2020 term.

ISU’s Hunt noted students there are continuing to secure jobs for this year — meaning numbers likely will increase.

“The drop from 2019 to 2020 is likely pandemic related,” she said.

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