Almost a third of California restaurants closed last year

(KERO) — A legislative committee says nearly a third of California's restaurants permanently closed their doors and two-thirds of workers temporarily lost their jobs as the pandemic set in.

According to the California Restaurant Association, the industry previously included 76,000 places to eat or drink and employed 1.8 million people. But as the pandemic kicked in almost a million workers were laid off or furloughed.

Industry leaders are now concerned that a lack of labor may cause more restaurants to close down although they do expect the industry to rebound as the country reopens.