The next step in trying to combat the nationwide worker shortage is the enlisting of liaison companies to help businesses find potential employees.

While that may well lead to quick hirings, it’s going to bring higher prices to the consumer.

Businesses already are resorting to desperate measures to fill their many openings.

An executive with Chef’s Warehouse, a $1 billion food-supply company, told the New York Post his current plight is difficult to sustain.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine we’d be doing this — putting people up in hotels to work for us,” company CEO Christopher Pappas said.

Pappas said the company lost 40 percent of its drivers and warehouse workers during the pandemic. He opted to bring on Regional Supplemental Services to rent drivers, but said he was charged a premium due to a policy defining this situation as an “emergency” basis.

The Post story also referenced other sectors’ troubles as the economy reopens and expands. In turn, it’s been a boom time for outsourcing.

RSS, which provides temps in trucking, had its best year ever in 2020.

“I get calls from desperate Fortune 500 companies every day that need to move perishable food,” RSS vice president Rich Jennings said. “It’s most dire in the food industry right now.”

He added that, this year, revenues are expected to rise by 600 percent.

“I’ve never seen drivers get paid what they are paid today,” Jennings said. “They are getting well into the six figures and they can easily make $3,000 a week. A (commercial driver’s license) is like a golden ticket right now.”

The Post story referenced a recent survey by the International Foodservice Distributors Association that reported a shortfall of 15,000 drivers and 17,500 warehouse workers — roughly a 12 percent vacancy rate per company.

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