Now that COVID restrictions and guidelines are easing up, some businesses are struggling to find workers.
Business owners and managers are facing a worker shortage and it’s affecting how they run their business.
Italian Village Manager Brian Donahue says they're having a worker shortage because if a worker shows symptoms, tests positive for COVID-19, or has contact with someone that’s positive then a large part of the crew has to isolate and can’t work.
Businesses are being forced to change the hours they’re open to better fit the employees that can work.
“You’ve got to match the hours to the people you have working and its very difficult.”
Donahue says he usually has a stack of applications to go through, but over the last six months he’s received three.
“We’re not the only ones, everybody’s in the same boat, no one is even turning in applications, you can’t even choose a good applicant because there’s no applications.”
Donahue says this time of year is already tough - they lose employees when students graduate and move away from Carbondale.