Restaurant industry sees strongest job growth in six months

Industry job growth has been led by the coffee and snack segments. | Photo: Shutterstock.

Jobs in restaurants and bars continued to trend upward in September, but unemployment across the broader workforce grew.

That’s according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Thursday, which was delayed for nearly two months by the government shutdown.

Overall, total non-farm jobs grew by 119,000 in September, but showed little change since April, the report said. Jobs declined in June (down 13,000) and August (down 4,000), resulting in a downward revision of earlier data.

The unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.4%, or 7.6 million. That’s up from a year ago, when unemployment was 4.1% and the number of unemployed was 6.9 million. 

That elevated rate has prompted speculation that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates in December. It also bodes ill for the restaurant industry, which has seen consumers cut back on spending amid uncertainty about the economy.

Job growth in restaurants and bars, however, was a highlight, along with employment growth in health care and social assistance.

Restaurants and bars added 37,000 jobs, which was the strongest monthly employment increase in six months, and the second largest gain of the year, according to the National Restaurant Association.

In total, restaurants and bars added nearly 68,000 jobs in the third quarter, which marked improvement from the modest results earlier in the year. Restaurant jobs declined by 28,000 in the first quarter, but then increased by 23,800 in the second quarter, the association said.

Still, industry job growth this year has been somewhat muted, compared with recent years, though, given upward revisions in July and August, it’s better than it previously appeared.

The Association projected that the restaurant industry remains on pace to add more than 100,000 jobs this year, which would mark the fifth consecutive year of increases above that level.

With the industry job growth in the third quarter, the restaurant workforce has surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Employment rates in September were nearly 144,000 higher (or 1.2%) above the numbers for February 2020, just before the COVID shutdown.

Limited-service restaurants set the pace for that job growth, in particular the coffee and snack segments. In August, employment in coffee, donut and ice cream shops was about 23% above February 2020 levels, while jobs in quick-service and fast-casual restaurants were up only 2.4% and full-service employment was up 3.7%. 

Because of the delay from the government shutdown, BLS does not plan to release data for October until Dec. 16, when November jobs numbers will also be posted.

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Lisa Jennings is a veteran restaurant industry reporter and editor who covers the fast-casual sector, independent restaurants and emerging chain concepts.

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