(KOMO) —A record number of workers have missed work during the pandemic-- making a labor shortage crisis even more dire.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in late December and early January alone, there have been nearly nine million sick calls nationwide linked to COVID-19.

There have been nearly 84,000 calls in Washington, and nearly 54,000 in Seattle.

In some parts of South Lake Union, there’s a restaurant on virtually every street corner. Inside Portage Bay Cafe, co- owner John Gunnar is much busier than usual. Because of a labor shortage, he’s wearing multiple hats.

Omicron variant cases are taking a big bite out of the workforce in many industries--especially restaurants.

“More people are getting sick. More people are calling out,” said Gunnar.

That is forcing Gunnar to juggle schedules and shuffle around employees among his four restaurant locations.

“Today, I had to move some employees from our 65th location to our Ballard location because they were down to just two cooks,” said Gunnar.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an exceptional number of people have been out sick with COVID-19 or they were out caring for someone who was sick.

It's making a bad staffing shortage even worse.

“It’s just like getting hit and hit and just getting tired of it,” Gunnar said.

At Pike Place Market, many restaurants are also feeling the squeeze.

Some places are still struggling to fill critical jobs, let alone keep their doors open.

At Emmett Watson’s Oyster Bar, a single sick call can be detrimental says owner Thurman Bryant.

“A gentlemen who works for us a couple days a week; he called out sick.so we just had to close that day,” said Bryant.

Bryant said it’s the same story for many other restaurants.

“One of the other places--they had to close for two days because they had so many people calling out sick,” said Bryant. “I’ve been here 44 years and I haven’t seen anything close to this.”

With fewer people available to work, many restaurants have been forced to close earlier or open fewer days. They've had to stream-line their menu to make things easier for staff.