Fast food places near me all clearly have labor shortages. Many are drive thru only, and they have long lines.

Now maybe that's just the market at work and they're not paying enough.

But that doesn't fit with this guy's claim that employers weren't really getting back to him.

Whatever you want to blame it on, the shortage appears real. And I can understand employees not applying in the first place if the pay is too little, but once that hurdle has been overcome and an application or inquiry made, seems hard to believe understaffed places are shrugging their shoulders at people willing to work for the going pay.

But maybe his area is different. If so, no point in generalizing it to other places.