DENVER — The job stories continue to roll in about whether there is a labor shortage as a disconnect grows in the jobs offered, the required skills and the people available to fill those spots.

Lisa Kunze, who has a master’s in education, wrote in to say that as an older worker who lost her job in the pandemic and “settled” for seasonal tourism and part-time work, she started her hunt in earnest again this summer.

“One interviewer missed their own deadlines throughout the six-week process and has yet to call me back after three interviews and a promise of ‘We’ll let you know either way’ by Friday, which was two months ago,” she said. “Another only kept me hanging a week after promising not to. The rest have either not responded to my serious applications or declined appropriately by email, all giving no details only saying another candidate was chosen. … The unsaid, because it is illegal but nonetheless a reality: I am ‘overqualified’ and ‘old’ and in the ‘OK, boomer’ category.”

The Empire resident is looking forward to colder weather though because a ski area just called her to offer her full-time hours, she said. “Let it SNOW!”

An owner of a Denver-area bakery said she can’t find any adults “with a good work ethic to save my soul,” even at $18 an hour. Etienne Hardré, who operates Locals Barbershop & Salon in Colorado Springs, said he has 15 chairs but only four people cutting hair. They’ve had to close three days a week because of the lack of staff. Back in the day, an opening for an unskilled front-desk job used to get 100 applicants in 24 hours, he said. “That position (now) receives one application every couple of weeks.”

Read more at ColoradoSun.com.