Matt Stroshane/Disney Parks
- Disney is offering significant bonuses to new housekeepers and cooks at its Florida theme park.
- Last year, Disney laid off 32,000 employees amid closures caused by the COVID pandemic.
- The company is now scrambling to find workers amid a huge US labor shortage.
Disney is scrambling to recruit new housekeepers and kitchen staff at its Florida site, as the labor shortage continues to impact businesses across the US.
In an attempt to address the issue, the world's biggest theme-park operator is offering $1,000 sign-on bonuses to attract workers, according to the company's website.
Housekeepers, earning $16 an hour, and line cooks, making $18, are entitled to receive the money if they stay in the position for at least 90 days, the website states. The first payment of $250 will be made after that 90-day period, and the second payment after 150 days, it adds.
The news of Disney's staffing struggles comes only nine months after it dismissed 28,000 back employees in September amid the pandemic. That later rose to 32,000 throughout the company, as Insider previously reported.
Retention of workers is also a problem. At Disney World, only about 33,000 of the more than 41,000 members of the Service Trades Council Union have returned to work, according to Matt Hollis, president of the union, per Bloomberg.
The struggle to recruit and retain workers is yet another sign of a labor shortage in the US, which has caused some businesses to slash operating hours, reduce production, and raise prices.
The Chamber of Commerce has described the shortage as a 'national economic emergency' that's getting worse by the day. Its president and CEO Suzanne Clark said it "poses an imminent threat to our fragile recovery and America's great resurgence," as Insider's Grace Dean reported.
Some hotels are even offering long-term perks, like higher wages and expanded healthcare access. As previously reported by Insider, the Gansevoort Meatpacking hotel in New York City gave senior workers a $1,345 connected-fitness machine when they returned to work.
Companies including McDonald's and Subway are also among the firms grappling with the tightened labour market, which has led to some employees working longer hours and suffering from burnout.