With economy reviving, Capital Region employers scramble to find workers

Six Flags Great Escape theme park is holding its first-ever contact-free drive-through job fair as it races to fill 1,500 jobs before its May 1 opening.

With travel ticking up, Albany International Airport is in a similar race. It will hold its first-ever airport-wide job fair, with everyone from the Transportation Security Administration to the operators of Wolfgang Puck looking to hire.

The economic recovery is quickly gaining steam as consumers, buoyed by stimulus payments, a booming stock market, and the confidence that comes with being fully vaccinated against coronavirus, are opening their wallets after 13 months of hunkering down at home.

"We're up 72 percent from last year," said Janet Kaplan, vice president, real estate at Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland. "It's pretty amazing."

Two government reports on Thursday morning — initial claims for jobless benefits, and retail sales for March — sent financial markets higher, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing above 34,000 for the first time.

Driven by stimulus spending, retail sales in March climbed 9.8 percent in March from February, and surged 27.7 percent from March 2020, the U.S. Commerce Department reported.

The number of workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits hit a 13-month low, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday, in the latest sign the job market is rebounding.

The number of claims filed in the week ending April 10 totaled 576,000, the lowest figure since the 256,000 claims March 14, 2020, as the pandemic lockdown was just getting underway.

The figure was also 193,000 fewer than the previous week's revised figure, the Labor Department reported.

“With a huge, better-than-expected decline in new claims for unemployment assistance, at long last the economic recovery appears to be picking up speed," said Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com's senior economic analyst, in his weekly commentary. "Not only did the headline number of seasonally adjusted initial claims drop beneath the 700,000 level, but it continued on below 600,000 to the lowest since mid-March of 2020.”

In New York, the number of workers filing initial claims fell by 11,763 to 56,603 from 68,366 the previous week.

While the number of jobs in the five-county Albany metro area was 5.7 percent below year-earlier levels, the pace of hiring is likely to close the gap in the coming months.

Still, 16.9  million workers continue to receive some form of unemployment benefit, Hamrick noted, a reminder "that we’ve not returned to pre-pandemic levels overall."

Nevertheless, employers are reporting difficulty in finding enough workers.

Albany International Airport's first airport-wide job fair will be held Friday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Million Air terminal, said airport CEO Phil Calderone. Recruiters, including concessions operators, airlines, the Transportation Security Administration and the airport management company will participate.

Masks will be required and social distancing protocols will be followed.

"We're really excited that things are picking up" at the airport, Calderone said. "This is an opportune time to look forward and help our concessionaires and tenants find employees with the necessary skills."

Six Flags' drive-through job fair will be held the next two Saturdays, April 17 and 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. Job applicants should apply first online at sixflagsjobs.com.

Other Lake George area employers, including dozens of restaurants and hotels, also are scrambling to find workers. The website LakeGeorgeishiring.com lists hundreds of job openings.

Operators of hotels are even redesigning jobs to compensate for the labor shortage.

"From a hiring perspective (employers are asking) 'what can we do to lighten the load of a front desk person,' " said Gina Mintzer, who heads the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce. Hotel operators might have guests fill out forms before arrival to expedite check-in, for example.

The competition for workers is expected to tighten further as more summer venues, including the Saratoga Race Course, get the green light to open, although with limits on attendees.

The economic expansion isn't without its hiccups.

Supply chains are being overwhelmed, and merchants are confronting shipment delays, said Kaplan.

But the outlook remains strong for the coming months.

"People have so much pent-up demand," Kaplan said. "We're pretty optimistic for the spring and summer."