That "nobody wants to work anymore" take falls apart when you look at one number
There's a take going around that says nobody wants to work, and it gets shared by people who haven't looked at a single wage figure. Here in Cincinnati, the hardware store I manage posted a cashier job at $11.50 an hour in March and got 3 applications in 4 weeks, then reposted the same job at $15 and had 22 by Friday. It's not a mystery why. If your opening sits unfilled for a month while the place next door at $16 has a waitlist, the problem is the pay, not the work ethic.