HONOLULU (KHON2) — About 19 percent of Hawaii’s population is active duty military, their dependents or a federal worker. With the government shutdown continuing, businesses are bracing for an uncertain future.
It’s Aloha Friday lunch time at Ruby Tuesday Moanalua. It’s busy, but there are a few empty seats. And they’re expecting it to get worse.
Firings of federal workers begin as White House seeks to pressure Democrats in government shutdown
“We have a lot of people who are here from government workers,” said Rick Nakashima, Ruby Tuesday owner. “We’re right next to Pearl and Hickam, yeah, that’s definitely gonna be an effect on us.”
Restaurants across the state share the same feeling. Even though this is traditionally a downtime for businesses – during school and before the holidays – the federal shutdown has everyone bracing for a dip…