A Nantucket restaurant is considering hiring 8th graders because of the lack of available workers amid the US labor shortage

The restaurant sector has been hit hard by the labor shortage.

Noam Galai/Getty Images

Straight Wharf Restaurant is considering hiring eighth graders, as the labor shortage continues. The restaurant’s chef told Fox Business that its location on Nantucket made commuting impossible. He said the lack of workers could threaten its plans to reopen on a seven-day schedule. See more stories on Insider’s business page.

A restaurant in Nantucket says it’s struggling so much to find workers that it’s interviewing eighth graders.

Gabriel Frasca, a chef at the Massachusetts island’s Straight Wharf Restaurant, told Fox Business that the restaurant was particularly hard hit by the labor shortage, because commuting was unviable.

The island has a population of less than 12,000.

Read more: An economic theory called ‘reallocation friction’ may explain why employers are having a hard time finding workers – and why a full recovery could be years away

“We’re at the point in the hiring process where not only are we considering eighth graders, but we’re interviewing them,” Frasca said. “That’s new … for me but hey, he’s got housing.”

Industries from education and healthcare