The Restaurant Industry Is Facing the Perfect Storm—But There Are Smart Ways to Weather It

Whatever you may have heard about how hard it is to find and retain employees in this market, restaurants have it worse. Much worse. More than 11.6 million people work in food service annually (including managers). Yet, a Bureau of Labor report flagged that the restaurant industry’s year-over-year quit rate jumped from 4.8 percent to nearly 7 percent, a more significant increase than in any other job sector. As a result, restaurant job openings increased from 5.8 to 8.4 percent. At the same time, inflation and food costs are rising, energy costs are spiking, supply chain issues persist, and the rent is still due. It’s hard out there for a restaurant.

And it’s about to get a lot harder.

The food industry is approaching the perfect storm of a labor shortage, a customer surge, and heightened consumer expectations about service, cleanliness and more. Business owners need to step up or find themselves losing out.

Restaurant employees have many options about where to…