Employee Shortage Causes Local Businesses Take Drastic Measures

"I have 7 employees and I need 12, or 13," said Schrank.

To keep his store running with his skeleton crew, Schrank posted a new sign on the door, closing the restaurant for 3 hours in the middle of each day.

"We lost a couple more employees so we got desperate," explained Schrank. "And we just had to simply cut our hours back which is not really an approved Quiznos thing to do. We just had no choice."

Quiznos isn't the only business taking a blow with the employee shortage.

We posted a picture of the sign to the Big 2 Facebook page and got a lot of feedback from viewers.

Micah Wells said, "Chick-fil-A in Odessa is the same."

Carmen C. Randolph wrote, "Chili's doesn't have the entire restaurant open normally, Dollar General throughout Odessa closing early, Walmart closing the deli at 4:30 in the afternoon, and the list goes on and on a sign of the times."

So with all these extreme measures being taken, what does this mean for non-oil related industries here in the Permian Basin?

Willie Taylor, the CEO for the Permian Basin Workforce Board, says when it comes to filling these types of jobs many of the people who used to work them don't have to anymore because of the money that's flowing in from the oil industries.

"We have a lot of folks that's choosing not to get into the workforce now because their spouses are making so much money and they're now what we call stay-at-home moms and dads," said Taylor.

But there is hope. Taylor predicts that with time more people will move to the area and pick up these jobs.

"The workforce will eventually catch up," stated Taylor. "As we continue to build affordable, workforce housing, people will continue to move into this area."

But until then, Schrank says he'll just have to make due and pick up the slack himself.

"I'm old and need to get out of this," said Schrank. "I'm supposed to be retired but it's not working out."

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