State Report Says More Than 1,000 Layoffs Are Coming At Chicago Area Restaurants Due To COVID-19 Pandemic

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act Report for the month of October announced 3,384 coming layoffs in the state – most of them permanent, and many of them at Chicago restaurants.

Employers are required to file with the state for the WARN Report each month, giving 60 days notice in mass layoffs. The total number of restaurant layoffs amounted to 1,070.

Among the many restaurants in Chicago and the suburbs that are set to enact permanent layoffs effective Dec. 16 are:

• Wildfire, 159 W. Erie St., will lay off 29 workers Wildfire will also lay off a total of 112 workers from its Schaumburg, Lincolnshire, and Oak Brook locations;
• The Chicago riverfront restaurants RPM Seafood and Pizza Portofino, 317 N. Clark St., will lay off 80 workers;
• RAMEN-SAN and Il Porcelino, 59 W. Hubbard St., will lay off 47 workers;
• Big Bowl Chicago, 60 E. Ohio St., will lay off 26 workers, and Big Bowl Schaumburg in the Streets of Woodfield will lay off another 44.
• Bub City, 435 N. Clark St., will lay off 40 workers;
• Ema, 74 W. Illinois St., will lay off 38 workers;
• Beatrix's location, 519 N. Clark St., will lay off 35 workers, and Beatrix's location at 673 N. St. Clair St. will lay off 40;
• HUB 51, 51 W. Hubbard St., will lay off 34 workers;
• Summer House Santa Monica and Stella Barra Pizzeria, 1954 N. Halsted St., will lay off 31 workers;
• Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, 60 E. Grand Ave., will lay off 64 workers;
• Shaw's Crab House, 21 E. Hubbard St., will lay off 69 workers, and Shaw's Crab House in Schaumburg will lay off another 27;
• RPM Steak, 66 W. Kinzie St., will lay off 25 workers;
• L Woods Tap and Pine Lodge, 7110 Lincoln Ave. in Lincolnwood, will lay off 37 workers;
• Saranello's, 601 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wheeling, will lay off 31 workers;
• Osteria Via Stato, 620 N. State St., will lay off 25 workers;
• Petterino's and Do-Rite Donuts, 150 N. Dearborn St., will lay off 80 workers.
• RPM Italian, 52 W. Illinois St., will lay off 36 workers;
• Bub City and Joe's Live in Rosemont will lay off 66 workers.
• Aba and The Dalcy, 302 N. Green St., will lay off 29 workers;

Meanwhile, foodservice provider Aramark is enacting temporary layoffs at an unspecified date at multiple locations – 92 at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, 93 at the Rosemont Convention Center, and 192 at the Allstate Arena.

The Ace Hotel, 311 N. Morgan St., already started back on Sept. 30 with 64 temporary layoffs. Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Bannockburn is laying off 400 employees permanently due to a restructuring and relocation, and the mobile outreach program for Catholic Charities at the Archdiocese of Chicago is permanently laying off 43 employees for unspecified reasons.

The reasons for the vast majority of layoffs announced in the report was the COVID-19 pandemic.

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