DENVER (KDVR) — Restaurants are now able to stay open longer as COVID-19 restrictions continue to lift in Denver. However, bar and restaurant managers now have to bring back more staff, which has proven to be difficult.

“We have been slowly increasing our last call, depending on how many people are coming in because there is no point in us staying open until midnight if there is nobody coming into the restaurant,” said Thom Neil, manager of the Ale House in Denver’s Lower Highlands.

The restaurant is also slowly increasing its wait staff team as more people begin to feel comfortable eating out again. Neil has been calling furloughed workers to bring them back to work but those conversations didn’t all sound the same.

“People changed career paths completely, some people went back to school and enjoyed that opportunity,” said Neil. “Some people, as soon as I reached out them said they would come back tomorrow. They were ready for it.”

Owner of Superfood Bar on Platte Street in the Lower Highlands, Joseph Stone noticed hesitation in coming back to work within the restaurant industry, which can make it difficult to restaff.

“It’s definitely been a struggle because there has been such an upheaval among the workers in the restaurant industry,” said Stone. “I had a lot of no-shows for interviews, but that’s to be expected with all the chaos right now.”

Today the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) reported that an estimated 11,633 regular initial unemployment claims were filed the week ending March 13th. There were also 1,473 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) initial claims filed for the same week. Since mid-March 2020, an estimated total of 869,593 regular initial unemployment claims have been filed and a grand total of 1,127,465 claims, when the PUA program is included.