Restaurants outpace other U.S. industries in job growth

Published Jul 11, 2012 at 10:00 am (Updated Jul 11, 2012)

The restaurant industry continues to serve as a leading job creator across the country, with the pace of employment growth in the industry over the past year more than doubling that of all industries combined. That's according to a new analysis of job figures from the National Restaurant Association, which shows jobs in the restaurant industry were expanded by 2.7% on the year, through June. Total job growth across the United States for the same time period was 1.3%. The NRA says restaurants have added a net 116,000 positions in the first half of this year and more than 575,000 jobs since March 2010. It's also one of the few industries in which current staffing levels are ahead of its pre-recession peak—about 193,000 jobs above it, NRA says. "Restaurant industry sales are gaining for the third consecutive year, spurring the nation's nearly one million restaurants to staff up to meet the increasing demand for away-from-home meals," says NRA President and CEO Dawn Sweeney in a prepared statement. The NRA projects that restaurant industry sales will exceed $632 billion this year, a 3.5% increase over 2011 sales. More figures and analysis of the numbers are available at the NRA website here.