Texas Businesses May Start Hiring More After Mandates Are Lifted, Experts Say

TX – With all businesses in Texas allowed to open at 100% on Wednesday, many are anticipating a hiring boom.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused historic job losses that affected many, primarily in the service and retail industries. Now, insiders say they expect many of those jobs to return.

Chris Strayer, executive vice president of economic development for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, says the jobs will slowly come back.

“They can take the steps in staging, because it can’t go from zero to 100 and then that brings on the hiring,” Strayer said.

He says companies will need to figure out what their plan is when it comes to adhering to CDC guidelines on masking and social distancing.

Gov. Greg Abbott said on Tuesday statewide mandates will end, but privately run businesses still have the right to do what they see fit for themselves, their employees and their customers.

“Each individual business can make a decision on how they want to open and whether they are going to require a mask or what not,” Strayer said.

Strayer says it will be tough for many of the retail or service jobs to rehire former employees who have moved on.

“You have a lot of people that really like what they are doing and they won’t go back but for some that service, that retail that is their passion that is what they want to do,” he said.

The need for the employees, Strayer says, does exist and will continue to grow in the coming months.

Just in Fort Worth, officials with the Chamber of Commerce say they’ve noticed activity picking up even with out-of-town visitors.

“They are seeing interest in those conventions they had to push off or even new conventions to come in and have their events here,” Strayer said.