This sign was up for over two months as the company searched for employees. (Enterprise photo — Quinlan Peer)

(Editor’s note: The Enterprise is publishing a series of articles about employers finding workers to be in short supply these days. In upcoming issues, the Enterprise will examine barriers on how businesses are adapting, the effect of J-1 students, and what may be the reason behind the lack of workforce.)

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SARANAC LAKE — Finding enough employees to staff businesses has been an issue in this area for many years. It has now become an even bigger problem as the entire nation struggles with understaffing.

If you walk on the main street of almost any town you will find a “now hiring” sign for most businesses. With this major lack of workforce, many are wondering how this happened.

Some business owners around the Tri-Lakes believe it’s only their industry, and that people would rather go into another field. Others think it’s the nature of living in a seasonal area — businesses don’t need the employees year-round, so they get laid off only for the business to not have enough employees when the next peak season rolls around. Some find that it’s year-round employees are what business owners are looking for and the workforce isn’t looking for that kind of job.

Then there is the answer that there just aren’t enough workers. This may be true, according to population estimates done by World Population Review. WPR monitors the world population and statistics with census data and real-time estimates based on birth and death rates. The 2020 U.S. Census will not be available until later this year.

Since 2010, Saranac Lake has seen a population decrease of 0.81% annually, Lake Placid has seen a decrease of 1.16% and Tupper Lake has seen decrease of 0.9%. No Tri-Lakes town has experienced an increase since before 2010, when Saranac Lake saw an incline of 0.71%.

Along with this, the population of people nearing the age of retirement outweighs those coming into the workforce. In Tupper Lake, the demographic of people ages 55 to 65 is 1,313 people, but ages 15 to 25 is 949 — that’s a 364-person gap. The average age of a Tupper Lake resident is 44.8 years, which is almost six years older than the U.S. average of 38. Saranac Lake is two years above average as well.

“We have been hiring since last July,” McDonald’s Area Supervisor Sherry Reinhart said. “We have been offering scholarships to try to attract those that age, yet we are still understaffed.”

This all comes together as the United States as a whole is struggling to find a workforce after so many were laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some people are now hesitant to return nationwide. This, mixed with the aging and declining population, could be the reason behind the labor gap.

“It was tough before COVID and really tough now,” Chief Operation Officer of Prestige Hospitality Group Bill Gomez said. Prestige works with many hotels in the area, such as the Best Western in Saranac Lake.

There is the age-old argument that people may hear: the younger generation is lazy and doesn’t want to work. However, the age range of 24 to 29 in Saranac Lake has a labor force participation of almost 85%. This is the highest labor force participation out of all age groups and demographics.

“My friends and I all work at least two jobs because they’re available,” Saranac Lake resident Julia Chapin said.

This isn’t just people ages 24 to 29 — younger residents are working a lot as well. The Lake Placid age range of 16 to 19 has a 36% higher labor force participation than the New York state average. If there is an issue with the younger generation as a workforce, it’s not that they don’t work, it’s just there aren’t enough of them.

Even with all these efforts, employees are still hard to come by and employers continue to search for what might not be there.