People walk past the 35-foot tall, 65-foot diameter “Epicenter” sculpture as they enter the new Weidner Field Friday night, April 23, 2021. The $4.5 million sculpture at the entrance to the soccer stadium was reveal to an invited crowd during a tour of the new facility. The Switchbacks play their first match at the stadium Saturday in a preseason game against Orange County. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Christian Murdock/The Gazette
Customers are returning to Colorado restaurants, bars, retail shops and other businesses, but they may not have anyone to take their order and serve them, help them find merchandise or take their payment.
That s because many businesses in the state s service sector are struggling to hire enough workers to handle the increased number of customers and sales now that many COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have been lifted. Business owners report they can t get anyone to respond to their job postings and help-wanted ads, let alone show up for an interview, accept a job and start working.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment adopted an emergency rule last week designed to push more people receiving unemployment benefits to return to the job market. The rule will cut off jobless benefits if applicants fail to show up for a scheduled interview or first day of work, which has become a growing problem.
Customers are returning to Colorado restaurants, bars, retail shops and other businesses, but they may not have anyone to take their order and serve them, help them find merchandise or
James Africano, owner of The Warehouse restaurant, holds the Mama Africano s Grillades dish, a meal inspired by his mother who used to prepare the meal, on Thursday, April 29, 2021. “It’s a delicious braise of beef cutlets, bell peppers, onions, tomato sauce and garlic served with baked cheesy grits,” he said. “We serve a slightly classed-up version and call it Mama Africano s Grillades and Grits. (Chancey Bush/ The Gazette)
Chancey Bush/ The Gazette
Patru Dumitru is a mushroom microgreen wunderkind. If that wasnât a thing, it is now.
After dropping out from a year of business school at UCCS, he started a hydroponics business at age 19 in his parentsâ garage, selling a rig he designed called the âHerbaHammock.â Sold for $125, it could grow 30 lettuce heads monthly. He wanted to empower people living in apartments or places without backyards to grow their own food, but after a couple years of giving it a go at farmers markets and failing to make much money, he embarked on a new journey. A local chef had asked him one day if he grew microgreens, so he looked into it, and became interested.Â