CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Starting next week, Luigi’s Pizza and Fun Center in Aurora will be closed on Mondays.
Owner Bill Poss said it’s because he doesn’t have enough workers.
“My core [team] has been working six days a week since January because of the lack of help,” said owner Bill Poss. “From 2019, we went from 53 employees down to 28 employees; that's almost half.”
The decision to cut back operating hours wasn’t an easy one, especially given the small business is just starting to bounce back from the economic impact of COVID-19.
“The last two weekends, I'm having weekends like I had in 2019,” said Poss. “Since the beginning of September, we’ve surpassed everything from last year so we are right back into the numbers that we had, but I don't have employees.”
Poss told WBBM Newsradio he’s getting dozens of applicants, but they’re not serious.
He blamed federal unemployment benefits.
“A month ago we had 11 [applicants] say, ‘Oh yeah, we're going to come in’. 10 out of 11 were no shows. They didn't care about coming in. They just had to show that they were applying somewhere. They didn't care about working and it's just a shame that we have to go like this.”
Poss said he needs to hire at least 15 more employees for Luigi’s Pizza and Fun Center to return to its normal hours.
He said he expects the hiring process will take several months.
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