Despite starkly cooling sales and traffic numbers of late, the restaurant industry is still quite hot on hiring. According to new data released Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, restaurants and bars added nearly 30,000 jobs in August, significantly outpacing the past three months and representing the largest monthly gain so far this year.
The sector added 19,500 jobs in July, lost 3,100 jobs in June, and added about 16,500 jobs in May. Prior to August, the sector’s biggest gain came in March, with 29,500 new positions.
The sector’s 29,900 jobs added in August made up 21% of all jobs created for the month, in which the United States economy added 142,000 new positions. The overall unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2% from 4.3% last month.
Additionally, restaurants expanded payrolls in August to their strongest pace in a year, according to the National Restaurant Association. The industry now counts about 12.4 million jobs, compared to about 12.3 million in February 2020, marking 0.7% improvement from the pre-pandemic peak.
As noted by the association, employment disparities exist by segment, with the full-service category remaining about 4% below pre-pandemic numbers. Cafeterias and buffets are about 31% below February 2020 levels. The limited-service category, however, seems to be in relatively good shape, with snack and nonalcoholic beverage concepts nearly 16% above pre-pandemic employment levels, and quick-service and fast casual concepts about 3% up.
Perhaps this disparity explains why most restaurant businesses are still looking to hire, despite surpassing pre-pandemic rosters. According to a recent survey conducted by Toast and Expert Market, 82% of operators are still looking to hire. Experienced chefs (30%) are the most in-demand position, followed by dishwashers (12%) and cashiers (7%). Twenty-three percent of respondents said labor shortages are the most significant challenge they face, second only to increasing operating costs (27%).
That said, retention is also a challenge. A 2023 study by Toast found that 30% of restaurant employees are at risk of leaving in the next two years. If there is a silver lining, BLS data shows that the number of employees in the sector who quit in June marked the lowest quit rate since September 2020, and the quit rate has slowed throughout the past couple of years to well below the pre-pandemic average of 633,000 from 2017 to 2019. In July, the rate was 573,000.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
