Lack of Workers in Idaho Forcing Business to Close
My family and I tried to go to dinner on Saturday, tried being the key word there. What was supposed to be a fun dressed up evening turned into waiting in the rain, driving around town and calling what seemed like every restaurant before throwing in the towel and ordering food to-go and eating at home. We even planned ahead, my man called Luciano's Italian Restaurant early in the afternoon. They don't take reservations but they do take call aheads. He let them know that we would be there (three of us) to eat at 7:15. No problem right? Um, turned out to be a big problem. We show up all dressed up and hungry at 7:15 and are told we will need to wait 20 to 30 minutes. Sooooo, we head outside and wait in the rain, and the car, about 45 minutes go by and we haven't heard a thing so decide to try and get in somewhere else.
No such luck. We drove around and called what seemed like every decent restaurant in town and are told that waits are hours long or that we cant get in for the rest of the night. Holy cow, since when did trying to get dinner become so difficult? The next day Luciano's posted on their Facebook that due to being so short staffed they are forced to close Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to give their small staff a break because they have been working nonstop since there is such a shortage in help.
It seems like you cant go anywhere in the Treasure Valley, Boise Metro area without seeing a help wanted sign regardless of industry or business type. Multiple places restaurants and others have had to adjust to reduced hours or close completely for days at a time or even permanently because they cant keep enough people on staff to keep things operational. Is this a strange phenomenon of the economy being too good? I have never lived in a city where this has been such an issue.
Many of the current unemployment programs are expiring at the end of next month. Hopefully that will get unemployed individuals out the door and looking for work again, because Boise needs it.
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