I'm in restaurant retail. My stores are all over the ny tri state area. Many of my stores are running short handed and these are the issues we are working on (franchised business, so the corporation I work for does not have direct say on employee issues in the stores):
1. some of the franchisees are happy to be paying for less hours which of course is hurting the guest experience. Their supply costs have risen, so they're ok with fewer employees and longer lines unfortunately.
2. many of the employees that left around Covid have gone onto other jobs with better benefits and more security--it's not just about pay. These jobs include IT jobs, office jobs such as dentist or dr offices, jobs in schools and banks. The pandemic brought out the worst in customers and many retail / food service workers had had enough of the poor working environment.
There are some other reasons but those are the two main ones the franchisees I work with are facing.
I will say, however, that the unemployment pay issue is no longer an issue. Those payments have mostly dried up except for someone on disability or extenuating circumstances. So, in my experience, no one is sitting home being paid unemployment as they were last year.