![]() "It's not a given that we're going to survive," said Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and owner of two popular restaurants. In the meantime, restauranteurs said they have to recover from the revenue they lost while their fixed costs like rent and insurance continued. ![]() "This is a two- to three-year recovery," Kevin McCarney, founder and chief executive officer of Southern California's Poquito Más restaurant, told the committee. The industry is expected to eventually rebound, the restaurant association reported, creating another 160,000 jobs by 2029, for a total of nearly 2 million statewide. Other committee witnesses said they're hoping for more direct aid either through stimulus or tax relief funding. Without providing specifics, he said lawmakers might want to use part of the state's massive budget surplus to create an incentive program for employees to return to work. "Right now we're just at the beginning of feeling this crunch," said Matthew Sutton, California Restaurant Association senior vice president for government affairs and public policy. Some may fear for their safety during the pandemic, while others may want "more stable career paths" after being repeatedly furloughed. Potential employees may be able to make ends meet with unemployment and federal stimulus benefits instead of going back to work, it said in its report. Yet many restaurants are struggling to serve the customers already allowed under current capacity limits because of a lack of staff, the committee said. ![]() With infections dwindling, vaccinations increasing and a positivity rate below 1%, officials say California is on track to lift most remaining restrictions on June 15. Its color-coded tier system for reopening the economy later allowed restaurants to offer outdoor seating or indoor dining at various levels of capacity as coronavirus cases eased. The state initially closed nonessential businesses, though it allowed food-serving establishments to continue offering takeout meals. Industry leaders said they fear a lack of labor may shutter more establishments as the economy reopens. Restaurant employment is still down one-quarter from before the pandemic, according to the latest numbers from the state Employment Development Department. "It is clear that recovery will take time." Josh Newman, who heads the committee and led the hearing on the issue. "COVID-19 has upended all of our lives, but its impacts have been felt more acutely in the restaurant industry, said Democratic state Sen. ![]() Gavin Newsom imposed the nation's first statewide lockdown, a legislative committee reported Tuesday.įew business sectors were more battered than the dining industry, which before the pandemic included more than 76,000 eating and drinking establishments employing 1.8 million people, according to the California Restaurant Association.īut with the shutdown, as many as a million of those workers were quickly furloughed or laid off, the association told the state Senate's Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response. ![]() Nearly a third of California's restaurants permanently closed and two-thirds of workers at least temporarily lost their jobs as the pandemic set in more than a year ago and Gov. A legislative committee says nearly a third of California's restaurants permanently closed and two-thirds of workers at least temporarily lost their jobs as the pandemic set in. ![]()
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