Another local Minnesota restaurant has been forced to cut back on hours due to its inability to hire enough staff to run the business.
Lord Fletcher’s Old Lake Lodge on Lake Minnetonka announced on Facebook that this Father’s Day will be the last Sunday brunch the restaurant offers, as they are struggling to hire enough employees.
“We will be canceling our Sunday brunch due to the lack of staffing necessary to provide you with the highest quality of service,” reads a Facebook post from Lord Fletcher’s.
The restaurant, which often hosts live music and outdoor events, will continue to offer indoor and outdoor seating for its main daily dining.
A recent report found that nearly 40% of small businesses in the U.S. have closed since the first case of COVID-19. The leisure and hospitality industry saw the highest decrease, with 52.4% of businesses closing at some point during the pandemic.
In part, small businesses are closing or cutting back on hours due to the inability to hire new staff. Atlas Staffing Inc., a staffing services company in Minneapolis, said they are filling only three or four positions out of 10 available every day.
“[People are] making more money staying at home on unemployment than they would be making at these $13.25 jobs,” the company’s Minneapolis office manager said.
Lake Country Meats, a butcher and deli shop in Alexandria, announced in May that its sandwich shop would be closed Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays for the time being.
“We are unable to secure enough employees at this time to keep [the store] running at a standard we need, and you expect,” the deli said.
In Minnesota, unemployment benefits currently include a $300 stimulus check per week from the federal government.
Reps. Jim Hagedorn, Tom Emmer, Pete Stauber, and Michelle Fischbach wrote a letter to Gov. Tim Walz in May asking that he stop “paying [people] to stay home.”
“Small businesses across Minnesota are desperately seeking workers but cannot compete with these federal payments,” they wrote.
Rose Williams
Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.
