People wearing face masks walk by Main Street n Southampton, New York.
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Hamptons residents and businesses say they can't find enough workers.
Soaring rents and a ban on visas for temporary workers is making it hard to live and work there.
A restaurant owner is doubling as a handyman. A resident said he'd taken to mowing his own lawn.
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Hamptons residents and businesses are scrambling to find workers during the growing US labor shortage - and one said he had to take off his $800 sneakers to trim the weeds because a landscaper didn't show up."I had to buy a lawnmower and cut my own lawn. I wanted flowers planted behind the pool. The landscaper didn't show up. I had to do it myself," one Hamptons resident told
Vanity Fair. "My brother just showed me how to use the thing that trims the weeds. Yesterday, I finally did that. I had to take my $800 sneakers off first, but it was actually satisfying." A
combination of soaring rents across Long Island, laws that crack down on shared houses, and a previous ban on visas for temporary workers has made it difficult for people to live and work in the area.Local businesses such as restaurants and beauty salons say they can't find enough workers to do the job.
