The reason New Jersey small businesses struggle to find help

It’s summertime and that usually means plenty of high school kids are out there working jobs for minimum wage in the service industry or small businesses. What you are seeing now is older people in small New Jersey businesses working these jobs for possibly more than minimum wage. The problem is young people today, or "Gen Z" as they are known, are not really fond of working.

It’s not that they’re lazy or inadequate. It’s just that they’re not used to doing the physical things and the personal interaction it takes to work in a small business. Blame it on technology or a lack of work ethic, whatever the reason, it’s an issue.

One small business owner called us with the probable answer to this question. The gig economy! People are doing side hustles at every age, rather than working in small businesses where they have to show up at a certain time and do the same thing pretty much every day.

With the gig economy and a side hustle, you can make your own hours and sort of be your own boss.

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And here’s a great suggestion for a new side hustle that I haven’t heard of before last month. A family member of mine is making up to $500 a week in “side money“ doing laundry. The app is called Poplin. You sign up and go through a background check. Then put a radius of how far you would go to pick up people's laundry. If a customer chooses you, you can determine whether or not you want to do the job. Whether it’s large items like towels and blankets or it’s just people's laundry.

Some might not be comfortable handling other people's laundry, but others don’t mind doing it or actually like it. So, this could be just another one of those side hustles that are the reason small businesses are having a tough time finding traditional entry-level employees here in New Jersey.

Yes, there is an app for just about anything you don't want to do yourself.

NJ's Route 22 circa 1984 — Do you recognize these businesses?

Thanks to a new music video for a song called "Twenty Two" by the band Jacques Le Coque, some great footage has surfaced of the NJ portion of U.S. 22, a vital artery through Warren, Hunterdon, Somerset, Union, and Essex counties.

Gallery Credit: Joe Votruba

Biggest NJ company layoff notices in 2022 and 2023

In some cases, workers may be offered back their jobs or transfers to different locations.

Here’s a look at more than a dozen of the biggest announcements within two years.

Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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