WEBVTT - Restaurants Must Adapt to Shifting Labor Market 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:23.080 Welcome to Chopping It Up. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:25.880 I'm your host, Mike Hallon, the senior Restaurant and Food 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:30.280 Service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Today we're joined by Vivian Wang, 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.519 the founder and CEO of Landed. Welcome to the pod, Vivian, 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:35.120 thanks for having me. 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:36.000 Excited to be here. 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:39.640 Yeah, I'm pumped to do this, looking forward to it. 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.200 Let's jump right in. What are you in the team 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:44.559 at Landed do for your clients? 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:45.840 Sure? 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.600 So, we're tackling the number one challenge facing the restaurant industry, 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:54.200 which is labor. So we help source that, engage screen 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.920 candidates from team members up to managers. 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.080 So some of our clients range. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:03.520 From McDonald's and Kava all the way to the Michael 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.399 Minna Group and invited club corps. So we really run 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.720 the whole gamut and and really just the goals to 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:12.640 get people staffed. 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:14.320 Super simple goal. 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:19.800 There and is it GM's houries both both. 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:22.440 We call it everything within the four walls we can do. 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.560 Okay, cool, Talk a little bit about what inspired you 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:27.360 to start the company. 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.440 Sure, so, I'll take it back. 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.479 So, my parents actually immigrated to the US from China 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:36.880 and their first two jobs are being a dishwasher and 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.759 a waitress in Ohio. 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:40.640 That's where I grew up, and so. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.000 I kind of grew up in like the craziness of 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:48.240 that of restaurants. It's super fun and I kind of 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.840 got hooked on it, you know, like once you're in it, 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.080 you just you love the chaos. Now fast forward a 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.040 little bit. I was in college, and when I was 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.480 in college, it was during the rise of the gig economy. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.200 So at Princeton, I studied public policy and one of 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.720 the things that we were looking at was economic policy. 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.360 You know, what is the gig economy. It was a 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:07.360 completely new. 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.000 Concept at that time, but you had companies like uber Lyft, 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.960 DoorDash basically taking the labor model and turning out its head. 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.600 So I was looking closely at that, trying to understand, Okay, 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.760 the people that are supporting these gig economies, the workers, 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.079 you know, where are they coming from, what is the 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.760 life path for them? So those were all like just 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.880 ideas that were swirling on in my head. And so 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.480 let's park that that was going on. I have the 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.679 restaurant experience. Now, right before I started landed, I was 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.440 actually working in retail. I was working at Gap Inc. 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.280 With the CEO there on a bunch of different initiatives, 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.680 one of which was our labor because if you have 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.960 turnover in your stores, then ultimately you're not necessarily delivering 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:52.960 the best customer experience that you could be. And this 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.280 is something that every single brand I talked to is 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.840 thinking about. So what we did is we kind of 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.080 overhauled the system of how we did hiring and I 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.800 took a lot of those parts. And not every company 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.600 has the resources of like a GAP Inc. But every 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.400 company has the same labor challenges, whether it's at like 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.400 the micro scale of a single coffee shop or a 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.400 regional ten location pizza shop, or it's a multi hundreds 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:18.600 of location enterprise. 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.480 So I'm all. 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.000 Those things kind of came together and that's why we decided, 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.120 you know, we're building this the easiest way for restaurants 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.480 to hire and the easiest way for candidates to find 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.640 a job that's actually the best fit for them. And 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.840 then beyond that, what we're thinking through is like, how 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.440 can we support those candidates from a finances perspective? So 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.960 after somebody comes in the second question is how do. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:42.760 We retain them? 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.920 So different things thinking there are a bunch of different 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.840 topics there that can dive into, like how do people 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.520 pay their bills? How do people get paid, how do 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.400 people save, how do people get access to credit? Those 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:56.840 are the types of things that we're going to be 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.720 tackling next and then finally upskilling. So I call it 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.040 the line Livelihood platform because livelihood is not just a job, 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.920 but it's also your finances, it's your education, and there's 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:07.400 a lot of stuff for us to do in all 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:08.520 those different categories. 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.160 Awesome. So when was the last time you were in Princeton. 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:14.240 I think I went. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.680 I go to reunions almost every year, so the reunions 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.239 are always in May, and basically you enter the orange 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.480 bubble we call it, and you have you have joined 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:30.040 a an orange cult. Everyone's wearing tiger printed things or 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:31.680 orange things. It's such a fun time. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.560 That's cool. Favorite restaurant in Princeton. 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:36.880 Yes, it's a Greek a laugh. 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.479 Ah, nice, great, great choice. 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.000 Yeah, I'm working in skillm in office most of the 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.880 time some times in New York, and yeah, that's a 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:46.440 great spot. 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:47.760 It's great. 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.080 And you know that entire place was new, it was 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.800 like actually renovated and it was opened when I was 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:56.400 when I was at school. 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.560 Oh really, Yeah, have you ever been to. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.919 CONTI I haven't. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.600 No, that's one I'm going to have to add because 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:06.680 I haven't even heard of. 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:07.840 It is on the main strip. 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:15.560 No, where is it? It's Witherspoon. No, oh, okay, might 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.000 be on Witherspoon. Yeah. 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.919 Kanti's Pizza is absolutely fantastic. It's kind of off, like 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.600 out of the way, it's not I don't think it's 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.560 that close to campus, but it's absolutely fantastic. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:28.640 I highly recommend it. 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.080 I'll be there. Pizza is my favorite food. 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.320 That was Yeah, that was one of port Noise. I 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:39.440 think it's a top ten Dave Portnoy one slice rating, 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.599 very high up there. Yeah, yeah, so definitely check it out. 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:43.280 I love it. 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.279 Next next may you got you got some homework to do? 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.839 All right, let's let's start with a five thousand foot view. 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.599 You know a lot of the economic indicators are weakening, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.400 but not the unemployment numbers. 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.960 So how strong is the US job market right now? 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.640 So it's kind of tricky, right because on the surface, 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:09.480 it looks like unemployment is looking good, right, and unemployment 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.960 one of the first indicators of economic health. But if 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:17.159 you actually like double click into that unemployment number. Like, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:23.640 labor participation is high, it's about sixty two percent right now, 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.919 but it's still lower than the pre pandemic levels. So 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:31.520 labor participation has fallen. You know, it's not a ton, 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.120 but it's fallen. And when you actually look at like 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.800 the roles that people are taking on, a lot of 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.599 them tend to be more like part time roles, so 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.039 they're not necessarily these full time roles that would indicate 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.240 like a more stable job. There are a lot of 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.800 part time roles and the number of part time workers 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:53.159 is increasing actually, so before like literally like you're on 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.880 like now we're looking at like nearly four million workers 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.600 are part time workers. So, you know, that's something to 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.479 think about because in the restaurant industry, being a full 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.280 time worker doesn't mean that you're working like nine to 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.799 five forty hours a week. Being a full time worker 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.360 means that you have some consistency of like thirty hours 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.720 that you're getting scheduled in per week. Now, if you're 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:16.920 below that, then that means that you probably have to 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:18.040 have more than one job. 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.400 Yeah, So yeah, and that's something I definitely wanted to ask. 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:23.320 So let's ask it. 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.520 Now, what percentage of the workforce are working multiple jobs. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.880 Well, so what we're seeing landed and we're you know, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.480 focused on this restaurant industry, the hospitality industry, our industry 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.200 is seeing that each on average, an employee will hold 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.040 two point one jobs simultaneously. So two point one jobs, 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.320 I mean, so basically two, but actually in some cases 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.840 like three. And that's because maybe you'll get ten hours 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.280 over here, twenty hours over here, twenty hours over there, 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.360 and that's what you need to support your livelihood. But 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.680 it's interesting too though, because there are there's kind of 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.600 this rise of and you know this for while, Mike, 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.880 these like daytime cafes, like daytime cafes are doing super well. 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.600 Coffee shops are doing you know, I think they're growing 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.080 super fast. You have companies like seven Brew that are 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.840 popping up and are going to sweep the nation. Yeah, 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.800 and and so you have like all these like kind 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.040 of jobs out there that are more like part time 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.720 jobs where you can actually hold more than one job simultaneously. 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.360 So I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Like 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:28.560 having more than one job at the same time is 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.760 not a bad thing as long as they're not in 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.320 direct conflict with one another and they kind of help 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.719 drive stability in like your livelihood. 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.480 Yeah, so have you seen the actual number of full 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:41.880 time job shrink? 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.760 So there are a ton of open jobs. It's the problem. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.199 You know, there are a ton of open jobs. And so. 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.080 Like the number of full time jobs, like it's kind 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.120 of stable, maybe a little bit up, but there's so 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:02.160 many open jobs, Like it's it's kind of crazy. And 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.800 and you actually also see like gig economy. I brought 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.240 up the gig economy that's like grown a lot, and 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.079 that's kind of cannibalizing some of like the full time 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.640 job openings. Like I know that we are going to 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.760 talk about this, and like it's it's kind of crazy. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.640 But like literally a gig economy is of eighty percent 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:27.560 since which rate since January twenty twenty, Like eighty percent 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:32.000 growth and just a short timeframe. And that's like, you know, 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.920 that's a contributing factor to keeping low unemployment levels. But 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:39.120 that's not like that's not like a sustainable like full 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:40.040 time job. 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.360 Yeah, so is this mainly younger workers that are are 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.240 you know involved in these gig jobs? 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.280 Not necessarily, so there are a lot of workers kind 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.600 of like you know, there are the younger workers, of course, 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.560 but a lot of the workers actually, like they are 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.319 ages like twenty five to forty, and you know, there's 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.520 a big population of them that are the immigrant like workers, right, 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.520 the immigrant workers are coming up, but of course they're 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:07.440 you know, they can work in the US, go through 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.920 the background tracks, they do all that stuff, but they're 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.520 trying to like get their footing here still. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:15.319 So it's an easy way to get footing. 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.000 But really, like there's a they can get jobs that 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.160 are not like the gig economy jobs, just it's just 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.520 that they have to like really get their bearings once 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:27.400 they've like moved over. 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.760 Okay, Yeah, I find that interesting because I'd assume it 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.200 would be the younger cohorts people that aren't ye in 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.800 a hurry to get health insurance and stuff like that, right. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:38.839 Yeah, And I mean so there aren't like a lot 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.239 of these companies that have popped up to support gig workers, 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.320 like everything like help you get loans to get a car, 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.320 help you get loans to get it like you know, 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:53.679 mopad helps you actually get the health insurance and things 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.679 like that. But it's tough because it's like it's expensive 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:03.240 and you see states like California, you know, always the 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:04.840 first ones to do it, and then you have like 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.720 New York City and you know, they just passed like 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:12.680 the twenty dollars minimum wage, and that's going to change 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:18.600 things because full time employees are are entitled to certain benefits, 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.760 but part time employees and mental states are not. So like, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.000 how will that change how restaurants think about their labor 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.760 mix is going to be it's gonna We're going to 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:33.160 see a lot of changes because California is just one state. 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.640 But if you're going to change it for all California, 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.040 basically the rest of the country is going to follow. 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.880 And the company has to like think about things from 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:44.920 that perspective and they're not going to just isolate it 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.719 to California. It really is like challenging companies to think 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:48.400 through everything. 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.360 Yeah, we wrote that when we wrote our note about 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:56.720 the about the passage of that bill, and it's you know, Oregon, Washington, 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.520 New York, Illinois. Those states are pretty fast fallows when 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.680 it comes to some of the workers legislation that comes 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:05.559 through California. 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.439 So you mentioned the gig economy has been around for. 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.480 A little while. How how has it evolved over the 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.319 years and what industries hasn't impacted. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.400 The most absolutely, so the gig economy. 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.319 You know, when it first started, like all these companies 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:24.480 that were even before like door Dash and Uber and Lyft, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.400 there was like there were a bunch of other companies 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.439 that you know, ultimately didn't make it, and these were 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.240 the ones that succeeded. But what they really did was 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.520 they like it was a labor arbitrage opportunity. You could 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.440 take somebody from one place and bring them to another 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.880 place where it might be a little bit more affluent, 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.559 and people are willing to pay for the service of comedians. 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.320 And so this is interesting too because like at the 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.240 same time as gig economy has been rising in the 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.680 past like about like almost a decade, you also have 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.560 the gen z and the millennial like generations that have 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:05.760 grown up on the internet with instant gratification. So as 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:08.520 like the services have evolved, it's kind of like chicken 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:13.200 and egg because like the consumer now frankly demands this 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.720 type of instant gratification. So how the gig ecomny has 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.760 evolved is okay, great. It like started out with just cars, 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.640 all right, we need to get around in cities. But 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.000 then now it's and then you have like door dash 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.320 and grub hub, and now everybody needs their food like 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.000 at their doorstep in like thirty minutes. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.439 Like I know, if if I. 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.120 See a restaurant takes more than thirty minutes to deliver something, 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:36.120 I'm probably not going. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.960 To order from it because everybody is so impatient. 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:43.920 Nowadays, and so like the consumer now frankly demands it. 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.520 And this has really like expanded outside of just you know, transportation, 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.280 It's expanded outside of restaurants and hospitality where I mean 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.480 most QSR is, like you know, fifty to seventy percent 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.880 of their orders are like supported by the gig economy 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:03.560 their delivery type orders. So that's there. But then also 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.360 like we got to think about like warehousing and logistics. 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.120 I mean, I think all of us knew about like 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.400 the crazy supply chain crises that were happening in the 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:13.559 past couple of years. 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:14.920 And why is that. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:19.360 Well, like, actually warehousing and storage and couriers and messengers, 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:24.040 air transportation, all these industries are also not as high, 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.800 not as up as like gig economy, which is eighty percent. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.440 But since February twenty twenty, they've been up like nearly 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:34.000 thirty to forty percent each of these categories. So what 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.800 that means is like, now anything that we want to 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.800 order like we need like this type of like instant speed. 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.680 There are companies like Gettier here in New York, Fridge 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:43.400 no More that you. 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.520 Know, unfortunately, like you know, went out of business or 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.960 got acquired Gorillaz, and they were promising ten minute fifteen 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:52.080 minute delivery times. 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:53.600 I mean it's insane. 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.080 And then now you got to also look at other countries, 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.000 like places like China, fifteen minute delivery times have been 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.840 has been a norm in the major metropolitans for the 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:08.000 past few years. Actually, So it's just we're going to 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:09.720 be moving in this type of direction where it's like 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:15.200 instant gratification is super important. Digital data is super important 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.560 because now we're kind of living in this like omni 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:23.720 channel world where everything is omni channel now, so data 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:28.000 has to be omni channel two and every industry is 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.440 going to be impacted by it. But we're seeing huge 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:39.600 impacts on hospitality, on transportation, on like home goods, retail, warehousing, 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.200 these industries, and these are also the industries that like 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:44.360 you know, land it focuses on because we think about 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.440 high volume hiring as of really are sweet spot and 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.800 high volume hiring is our sweet spot because they're high turnover. 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.800 It's high activity industries. 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.160 Yeah, yep, as we know, our restaurant industry is a 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:03.840 very high turn over our restaurants back to pre pandemic 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:05.000 staffing levels right now. 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:11.360 Well, so it's so like where restaurants have experienced basically 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.280 like a year and a half of consecutive employment growth. 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.760 So actually, like we do have the. 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:21.160 Same number of restaurant employees about twelve point four million 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.320 today as we did in early twenty twenty. 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:26.080 Okay, so that's good. 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.760 But the problem is that like a lot of like 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.840 the restaurant jobs have become complex and they're just more 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.120 of them, Like there are a lot of open jobs. 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.120 And it's because if we look at like the restaurant 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.120 and how it's evolved in the past couple of years, 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.200 like we basically turbo charged and industry by like a 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.160 decade in the span of like a year, which is crazy. 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:52.840 And so like we have the introduction of like everybody 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:54.640 has to be on third party delivery now you just 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:58.600 have to. Everybody has a loyalty program. Everybody has some 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.320 not everybody, but most have some type of like cloud 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:08.280 concept or ghost kitchen concept. Everybody has new hygiene practices 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.639 and the good the restaurants that have been doing well 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.719 are growing really fast because you know, there's a lot 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:17.959 of cheap commercial real estate that they were able to 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.440 kind of snap up in the pits of the pandemic. 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.439 So now you know you have this employment growth, but 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.440 you have so many new openings. I mean, I think 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.280 that probably like a third of all the locations that 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.399 we're working on at any given point, Okay, maybe a 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.399 third is a lot, but like twenty five percent there 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.760 are new openings. Twenty five percent of our clients. The 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.920 third of our clients have new openings like literally every month, 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.119 and these are multiple, and so I think that like 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:49.719 we can't really compare apples to apples, Like where we 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.840 were in February twenty twenty is very different than where 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.359 we are now. The jobs are a lot more complex 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:56.760 and there are more jobs, which is why you have 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.880 to introduce technology. Because restaurants can't continue to higher headcount 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.639 to support like their their increasingly complex businesses. They have 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:06.400 to introduce technology in order. 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:06.760 To keep up. 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:12.400 Okay, how's application volume versus say last year? And then 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.240 against pre pandemic levels. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:20.720 Yeah, so application volume is like looking up like literally 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.119 in the past like six months, I would say, like 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:29.200 last last year, it was really challenging because there were, 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.000 you know, applications were kind of these like passive ghost 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:37.320 applications where you know, due to how like certain states 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:39.640 had their unemployment benefits set up, like there's a lot 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.200 of just like you know, people applying and not necessarily 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.359 looking for jobs, and so that that made it very 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:51.240 challenging for the industry. So now we are finding that actually, 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.240 like what the metric that we look at is actually 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.679 like a cost per application. So rather than the volume 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:59.320 of applications, like what we really monitor heavily in each 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:03.600 of the differences codes across all fifty states which we're 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.639 in all fifty states, is the cost application. This is 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.040 a good metric because cost application tells you like how 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:15.160 much traffic there is and how expensive that traffic is 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.280 in applying for a job. So we actually found that, 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.679 you know, because we're good at what we do at LANDED, 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:23.919 you know, we're able to come in at usually like 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.280 thirty to forty percent below like benchmark cost p applications. 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:32.000 But even with even among like Landed clients. We're finding that, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.679 like cost applications in the past two quarters have like 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:39.080 dropped around like fifteen to twenty percent drop. Now we're 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.320 going to be expecting seasonality. We're going into the holiday season, 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.280 and holiday season is always very very competitive, so we 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.119 do expect, like you know that to kind of increase 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.200 a little bit for the next few months at least, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:52.320 but then it's going to go back. 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.160 So cost application is good. 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.520 I mean, you know, paying to get candidates is not 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.200 something that every single brand has to do, but every 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.320 single brand has to do at some point, like usually 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.560 around a new opening, usually around you know, specific like 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.320 we call them like nine to one one red locations 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.960 that have challenges, maybe a place where you know, manager 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.560 turnover is high. It's like nearly seventy percent at QSRs, 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.160 which is crazy, Like you know, they're like the lifeblood 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:24.399 of a business. But when you have manager turnover, you 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.919 would expect more turnover in the hourlies as well. So 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:30.760 it's kind of like something that we have in our 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:36.199 arsenal to help. But something that we are talking very 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.159 closely is that cost for application metric. 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.040 Interesting, many workers didn't want to go back to the 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:47.080 restaurant industry post pandemic. Is that still the case there 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.639 or are some some previous restaurant employees return into the business. 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:57.720 We do see not necessarily it's like previous restaurant employees, 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.239 so you know, now they have like a lot these 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:02.600 different options. But we do see like a new crop 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:08.960 of restaurant employees. So before in twenty twenty, we had 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.679 about like seven about seven percent of the employees were 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:18.320 just for restaurants of the employees, and when we look 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.360 at it now, it's actually a little bit higher. It's 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.840 like around like eight percent of all employees are like 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.399 you know, in the restaurant industry. So as a whole, 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:31.159 if you look at it, it looks like there are 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.080 more people turning to that. But I think a lot 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.040 of that's coming from like the new the new crop 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.280 of gen Z employees, you know, seventy percent of hourly 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:40.600