A few weeks back my sister told me about a restaurant near her being unable to find staff. The owner blamed it on overly-generous Covid unemployment/benefits. She was telling the story as a means of political critique ("government handouts," that sort of thing).

I was initially skeptical, but after thinking about it I realized that in certain sectors of the economy, this probably IS true. I mean, few people really plan to make a career of serving tables, do they? It's not like in France.

A few days later I saw the retort from the other side. "Employers are paying such low wages and have such poor working conditions that workers don't want to return if they don't have to."

Myself, I think both arguments are right. They're not really mutually exclusive, are they? (It's nice that people in this thread have maintained the objective, civil tone of the OP.)

I also wonder if the switch to take-out may have some lasting effect. I've gotten so accustomed to it, I doubt I'll ever return to as much eating out as before. Maybe they won't need as many servers going forward?