While national economic news this week has boosted markets, that probably is little comfort to the employees of a national chain restaurant that closed its doors this week in Bowling Green.

Just as one analyst reported this week that companies added 206,000 workers last month, the 30 employees at T.G.I. Friday’s will be out looking for work. The location closed permanently Tuesday. All the logos on the building have been removed, with just a standalone sign remaining in the parking lot. The franchise-owned business was operated by the Bistro Group in Cincinnati.

President Jeff Ritson said he typically doesn’t release much information about closings.

“I will say we enjoyed serving our customers in Bowling Green,” Ritson said.

A sign on the door says the same thing, noting the business had been here for 10 years at the head of Gary Farms Boulevard.

“It was purely a business decision to close,” Ritson said. “Management was informed and each employee was personally contacted.”

News spread Wednesday to former employees. One of them, who declined to give her name, stopped Wednesday to peer into the windows.

She had heard about the closure and wanted to see for herself.

Through the windows, cardboard file boxes could be seen stacked along tables at the back of the restaurant. The one employee inside, when contacted by phone, directed calls to corporate offices.

Ritson said each of the employees was given some kind of severance and was paid for any earned vacation time. He said he didn’t know how much notice they had received about the closure.

While not required because of the small number of employees, the company could have sought state help. Through the Barren River Area Development District office, workers will come on-site to companies that are closing and provide employees with information about what help is available to them.

“We go out for companies with one to 500 employees,” said Jill Lewis, rapid response business liaison for BRADD. “If employers know about our services, we are called in.”

Lewis said BRADD wasn’t notified of the closing.

Bowling Green city government is aware of the closing but has not yet been officially notified. The city will lose the 1.85 percent withholding taxes paid by employees on their wages and the 1.85 percent net profits tax paid on the company’s net profit made in Bowling Green, according to David Lyons, occupational license manager.

“We aren’t able to give out any exact amounts (because of confidentiality), but it certainly will be missed,” Lyons said. “It was a very nice restaurant everyone in the city hates to see closed.”

Ritson, when asked if he would consider opening a different restaurant franchise in Bowling Green, said: “Not at that location. That building is owned by someone in Bowling Green.”

Whether that means the company will consider coming back is not clear.

It wouldn’t be the first time a national franchise has closed in one Bowling Green location only to return to another after several years’ absence. Such was the case with Olive Garden, which once occupied the building on Scottsville Road where Smokey Bones now operates. Olive Garden reopened last year on Scottsville Road in a new building near the Interstate 65 interchange.

The Bistro Group also owns McAllister’s Deli and has Friday’s and McAllister’s in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.