Restaurant staffing spans more than 12.3 million seasonally adjusted jobs in food services and drinking places, with millions more workers in specific serving and preparation occupations. The latest figures show a large, low-hour workforce, substantial annual hiring demand, and measurable differences across roles in pay and projected employment.
Contents
- Workforce size and employment mix
- Restaurant job categories
- Pay and weekly work patterns
- Where food and beverage workers are employed
- Establishments and operating scale
- Safety and productivity indicators
- Staffing outlook through 2034
Workforce size and employment mix
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 12,356.4 thousand seasonally adjusted employees in food services and drinking places in April 2026. That is an industry-level employment measure, not a count of individual restaurants or a measure limited to full-time staff. Within the same industry, production and nonsupervisory employment totaled 10,693.3 thousand in April 2026, showing how much of the workforce is concentrated in frontline and nonmanagement roles.
The industry unemployment rate was 5.9% in April 2026. This rate describes food services and drinking places and should not be read as a turnover rate or as the share of open restaurant positions that are unfilled. For workforce planning, it is a broad labor-market indicator rather than a direct measure of staffing difficulty.
Union coverage was relatively limited in the BLS industry profile. Union members made up 1.8% of wage and salary workers in food services and drinking places in 2025, while workers represented by unions made up 2.2%. The distinction matters: membership and representation are separate measures. In the same year, full-time workers had median weekly earnings of $731. Union members had median weekly earnings of $769, workers represented by unions had $766, and nonunion workers had $729.
These weekly figures are not interchangeable with hourly wage statistics. They describe median weekly earnings for the stated groups and period, while hourly figures below describe occupational or industry pay rates measured at different dates.
Restaurant job categories
The BLS industry profile counted 3,297,540 workers in combined food preparation and serving occupations, including fast food, in 2024. Within that broad group, cooks, fast food accounted for 646,740 workers, and restaurant cooks accounted for 1,281,780. First-line supervisors and managers of food preparation and serving workers accounted for 982,700, while waiters and waitresses accounted for 1,976,940.
The occupational totals help show why restaurant staffing plans need separate assumptions for kitchen, service, and supervision. A single combined food-preparation-and-serving figure includes roles with different work patterns, wage levels, and responsibilities. Waitstaff and cooks also represent different staffing needs from first-line supervisors, even when all are part of the same operating model.
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reported about 5.0 million food and beverage serving and related jobs in 2024. That occupational group is broader than restaurant-only employment and includes workers employed outside food services and drinking places. Its component counts included 3,796,000 fast food and counter workers, 527,400 dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers, 429,900 restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop hosts and hostesses, and 277,200 nonrestaurant food servers.
Because the two BLS sources use different industry and occupational groupings, their totals should not be added together. The industry profile describes employment within food services and drinking places; the Occupational Outlook Handbook describes an occupational group and then shows where those workers are employed.
Pay and weekly work patterns
Average hourly earnings in food services and drinking places were $21.82 in March 2026. For production and nonsupervisory employees, average hourly earnings were $20.05 in the same month. Average weekly hours were 25.3 for the industry and 23.9 for production and nonsupervisory employees.
Those averages indicate why hourly pay and weekly income should be considered separately in restaurant staffing. A role can have an hourly wage but relatively few weekly hours, and the industry-wide average includes multiple occupations. The BLS industry profile also reported occupational pay measures for 2024:
| Occupation or group | Median hourly wage | Mean annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Food preparation and serving, including fast food | $14.48 | $30,980 |
| Fast-food cooks | $14.49 | $31,090 |
| Restaurant cooks | $17.61 | $37,240 |
| First-line supervisors and managers | $18.87 | $43,770 |
| Waiters and waitresses | $16.16 | $38,110 |
The table compares the supplied BLS occupational measures for 2024. Median hourly wages identify the midpoint of the wage distribution, while mean annual wages are averages and can reflect different hours worked across occupations. They should not be converted into annual or weekly figures without additional assumptions.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook provided a separate May 2024 view of food and beverage serving and related workers. The median hourly wage for the group was $14.92. The lowest 10% earned less than $10.88 per hour, and the highest 10% earned more than $19.65. Within selected occupations, median hourly wages were $16.57 for nonrestaurant food servers, $15.71 for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers, $14.65 for fast food and counter workers, and $14.61 for restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop hosts and hostesses.
For workers employed specifically in food services and drinking places, the Occupational Outlook Handbook reported a median hourly wage of $14.56 in May 2024. This is a different measurement from the $21.82 industry average hourly earnings reported for March 2026, because the figures use different dates, concepts, and population definitions.
Where food and beverage workers are employed
Food services and drinking places employed 82% of food and beverage serving and related workers in 2024. Other employment shares in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook were 4% in retail trade, 4% in healthcare and social assistance, 3% in educational services across state, local, and private employers, and 2% in traveler accommodation.
This distribution is useful when interpreting restaurant labor statistics. The occupation is not synonymous with the restaurant industry: some workers serve food in healthcare, education, lodging, or retail settings. As a result, an occupational wage or job projection may describe a wider labor market than a restaurant operator’s immediate hiring pool.
The employment mix also explains why staffing benchmarks should identify both the occupation and the industry. Fast food and counter workers, for example, were counted across the occupational group, while the industry profile separately reports food services and drinking places. The labels identify the scope of each measure and prevent unrelated totals from being treated as one headcount.
Establishments and operating scale
The BLS industry profile counted 719,780 private-industry establishments in the fourth quarter of 2024. The count was 719,091 in the first quarter of 2025, 724,715 in the second quarter, and 727,722 in the third quarter of 2025.
| Period | Private-industry establishments |
|---|---|
| 4th quarter 2024 | 719,780 |
| 1st quarter 2025 | 719,091 |
| 2nd quarter 2025 | 724,715 |
| 3rd quarter 2025 | 727,722 |
The establishment series is a count of private-industry establishments, not a count of employees, restaurants in every ownership structure, or staffing vacancies. It provides operating scale for the industry but does not show how many workers each establishment employed.
For restaurant operations, the sequence also illustrates why a single establishment count should not be used as a staffing ratio without more information. Staffing requirements can vary by concept, service model, role mix, and hours of operation, none of which are quantified in this series.
Safety and productivity indicators
Food services and drinking places recorded 145 workplace fatalities in 2021 and 144 in 2022, according to the BLS industry profile. The profile reported a 2024 total recordable case rate of 2.4 per 100 full-time workers. The case rate for cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer was 1.0 per 100 full-time workers.
Within that combined 2024 case measure, the days-away-from-work case rate was 0.7 per 100 full-time workers and the job-transfer-or-restriction case rate was 0.3 per 100 full-time workers. These are safety indicators expressed per 100 full-time workers, not counts of incidents across the entire industry.
The BLS productivity figures describe a separate dimension of restaurant operations. Output grew 1.2% in 2024, combined inputs grew 1.7%, capital input grew 1.8%, and labor input grew 0.4%. Labor productivity increased 1.6%, while total factor productivity fell 0.5%.
The combination shows that productivity measures do not all move in the same direction. Labor productivity and total factor productivity are distinct measures, so the 1.6% increase and 0.5% decline should not be averaged or treated as contradictory versions of one statistic. Each describes a different relationship between output and inputs.
Staffing outlook through 2034
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook projects food and beverage serving and related workers to grow 5% from 2024 to 2034. The occupation is projected to generate about 1,159,600 openings per year on average over that period. Openings represent annual hiring demand in the projection and are not the same as net new jobs.
The projected occupational total is 5,298,600 jobs in 2034, up from 5,030,600 in 2024. Among selected roles, fast food and counter workers are projected to reach 4,029,200 jobs in 2034, up from 3,796,000 in 2024. Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers are projected to reach 560,600, up from 527,400.
Food servers in nonrestaurant settings are projected to reach 285,300 jobs in 2034, up from 277,200 in 2024. Hosts and hostesses in restaurants, lounges, and coffee shops are the exception among the listed roles: their employment is projected to decline to 423,500 in 2034 from 429,900 in 2024.
These are BLS projections, not guarantees or current vacancy counts. They describe the expected direction and scale of employment for the broader food and beverage serving and related occupational group. For restaurant managers, the most relevant planning signal is the combination of a large existing workforce, about 1.16 million projected annual openings, and different outlooks by role.