Jami Janes worked in restaurants for 30 years before COVID-19 struck the U.S. and even put in a few shifts over the last year when her former boss needed a hand. 

But now that the end of the pandemic is in sight, Janes is considering whether she wants to go back to restaurant work. 

“I realized, at 54, it’s a brutal lifestyle,” she said.

Restaurants are clamoring for workers as more people return to indoor dining, and Republicans have made the industry’s hiring woes Exhibit A in their argument that unemployment benefits keep people from taking jobs.