Hammond's Candies Staff Keeping Busy This Year Amid Holiday Demand, Labor Shortages

DENVER (CBS4)- One candy business is struggling to keep up this holiday season. Hammond's Candies, located at 5735 Washington Street in Denver, is trying to keep up with demand during the labor shortages.

Businesses have been challenged during the pandemic with staffing shortages, supply chain issues and ingredient costs.

"It's been really hard hiring workers this year. In fact, this has probably been, in the 15 years that I've been involved with Hammond's, this has been the hardest it's been to hire workers," said CEO Hammond's Candies Andrew Schuman. "Not only was it hard to hire them, the wages have kept creeping up as well, so it's been really competitive out in the marketplace just with the lack of labor force and so it's been a little bit of a bottleneck for us."

This year, Hammond's labor costs have increased 30% but they are still challenged with staffing shortages.