ALBANY —Hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues have shed thousands of jobs in the Capital Region in the wake of a pandemic that has hobbled the local and national economy.
Dave & Buster’s, the sports bar, restaurant and gaming arcade, is the latest to feel the impact, warning on Thursday of 1,300 job cuts and a possible bankruptcy filing, according to media reports. Locally, 90 employees at the Dave & Buster’s in Crossgates Mall are facing permanent job loss, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with the state Labor Department.
A Crossgates Mall spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The leisure and hospitality sector has lost 17,500 jobs in the Capital Region over the past 12 months. Although restaurants have reopened, many have depended on outdoor dining or takeout to stay in business as customers avoid indoor seating.
The meeting and conference business has largely gone online, with Zoom and Microsoft Teams replacing airline flights and multi-night hotel stays.
Overall, the state Labor Department reported Thursday that the Capital Region — the metro includes Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie counties — had 44,200 fewer jobs in August than a year earlier, a 9.4 percent drop.
Percentage-wise, the largest job losses after leisure and hospitality occurred in a category that includes administration and support, and waste management and remedial services, down 23.5 percent, or 4,700 jobs; health care and social assistance, down 10.7 percent, or 7,200 jobs; retail trade, down 10.3 percent, or 4,800 jobs; and manufacturing, down 10.2 percent, or 2,700 jobs.
If Dave & Buster’s files for Chapter 11, it would join a number of retailers nationwide, ranging from Lord & Taylor and Neiman Marcus to Pier One Imports and J. Crew.
The state Labor Department reported that unemployment fell in New York to 12.5 percent of the labor force in August from 15.9 percent in July. But August’s rate was more than triple the 3.9 percent unemployment rate in August 2019. The figures are preliminary and subject to revision.
The state Labor Department will release local unemployment rates on Tuesday.
