The Orlando metro area’s unemployment rate was 3.4% back in February — last year in the same period, unemployment hovered just above 6%.

Despite the labor force growing by about 82,000 jobs over the year, one of Florida's major sectors continues to struggle and find workers.

Even with the hospitality and leisure industry gaining just over 55,000 jobs in the past year, it is still the one sector that has not been able to meet its demand for workers.

For example, it’s about two hours before showtime Friday night at Al Capone’s Dinner & Show in Kissimmee. Guests are being seated, and while the staff once again hustles and prepares for the show, they are still in for another night of being understaffed.

Currently, the dinner show is short about two dozen workers — half needed to work the front and back of the house, and the others to perform on stage.

“We are closed Mondays,” Al Capone’s Dinner & Show Floor Manager Michael Terranova said. “We were never closed in the past prior to COVID. We were open 365 days a year, except one day, for the Super Bowl."

According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the hospitality and leisure industry lost nearly 600,000 jobs from February 2020 to April 2020, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 89% of those jobs have since been recovered.

“What we are seeing is there is a lot of churn happening right now,” DEO Chief Economist Adrienne Johnston explained on a conference call Friday. “People are still trying to connect into the labor market, and we have people moving both out of jobs and also re-entering into the labor force.”

The DEO also reports that there are currently about 452,000 jobs posted online statewide.

Al Capone’s Dinner & Show has a few of those.

“Well there are a few servers that actually do parts in the show, part time,” Terranova said. “They are getting pulled out of their serving shifts to cover for the actors.”