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Earlier this year in May, popular seafood restaurant Red Lobster announced the abrupt closure of restaurants in Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Colorado, Texas, and California. This turn of events took many company employees off guard, leaving them without work effective immediately.

While unexpected, these shutdowns weren't exactly an outlier. Over the years, the retail, tech, and service industries have begun experiencing layoffs as companies grapple with inflation and a changing economy.

Unfortunately for many Americans across the country, these closures aren't stopping anytime soon. In fact, Red Lobster is shutting down dozens more of its restaurants amid a bankruptcy filing.

This is moving quickly

By the end of the month, 23 more restaurants will cease operations. This comes as Red Lobster is working with Fortress Credit Corp. Fortress Credit previously floated the seafood restaurant a $100 million loan. Now, given the bankruptcy proceedings, Red Lobster is selling itself to the investment company.

After the shutdowns of 23 additional restaurants, along with closures back in May, Red Lobster will have about 500 locations open. This is a notable plunge from the 650 establishments that remained active back in 2023.

This week, Americans learned the following states will have fewer Red Lobster locations:

• South Carolina
• North Carolina
• Arizona
• Virginia
• Ohio
• New York
• Colorado
• Georgia
• Indiana
• Minnesota
• Florida
• Missouri
• Arkansas
• California

Bad news for many American workers

Anytime mass business closures happen, the workers who rely upon these jobs suffer. Today's economy is still absorbing the impacts of inflation and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

23 restaurant closures mean potentially hundreds of employees are now out of a job. Finding work, in numerous cases, is easier said than done these days. Many companies are looking to avoid taking on extra overhead expenses and seeking out opportunities to expand their profit margins.

On the Red Lobster subreddit, company employees have spoken out about their experiences with the closures. An individual stated after driving to work one day, they saw a sign announcing the shutdown of the location. Adding insult to injury, the Reddit user revealed they received zero notice of the closure, not even from their general manager.