Businesses recovering from pandemic struggle to fill open jobs, forcing some to close and last updated 2021-05-06 13:39:26-04 Some businesses trying to recover from the pandemic are voluntarily closing their doors not because of restrictions imposed by the state in which they are located, but because they are short-staffed. As more states open up, business owners are coming across a unique problem: there are not enough workers to meet demand, despite a higher-than-normal unemployment rate. Currently, the unemployment rate is 6 percent, which represents about 9.7 million Americans who say they are actively looking for work. Yet, some are not applying to needed jobs in the service industry.