storefronts and closed signs as the great national sick-out spreads across the nation omicron tightening its grip on workers as businesses struggle to keep doors open. a new estimate says more than 5 million americans could be isolating at home over the coming days meaning stores like apple, walmart, starbucks and walgreen s have been forced to temporarily close some locations or shorten hours there s been a high level of stress in the system because of staffing shortages, and we ve had to reduce operating hours in some locations. fedex also warning customers of delays, but while larg businesses are able to adapt, some small ones are barely hanging on. if you think about the 30 million small businesses in the u.s., 90% of them have few are than 20 employees, and 80% have fewer than ten. if one person gets sick the entire operation could be crippled we have the business we don t have the staff, and so that s really frustrating and there are new clients who want to come in that
there s been a high level of extreme in the system, because of staffing shortages. we ve had to reduce operating hours in some locations. fedex also warning customers of delays, but while large businesses are able to adapt, some small ones are barely hanging on. if you think about the 30 million small businesses in the u.s., 90% of them have fewer than 20 employees, 80% have fewer than ten. reporter: meaning if just one person gets sick, the entire operation could be crippled. we have the business, we don t have the staff. so that s really frustrating. and there s new clients that want to come in that we have to turn away. reporter: long beach s california bark bark day care and grooming forced to shut down its day care operation, even both owners catching the virus. we ve never dealt with this situation. we feel completely helpless. reporter: for bakers at montclair bread company in new jersey, the dough is finally rising, but not enough to make costs. if the numbers