Restaurants and bars shed 15,700 jobs last month, according to new federal data on Friday, as restaurant hiring appears to have slowed coming out of the pandemic.
To compound matters, the industry lost just under 100,000 jobs because of a regular adjustment to the data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The restaurant industry accounted for 12.36 million jobs in January, down from 12.37 million the previous month. To be sure, this is the second straight January in which the restaurant industry has shed jobs and temporary factors such as weather could influence the numbers.
Nevertheless, they highlight some post-pandemic slowdown in industry hiring. Restaurants were slow to recover jobs lost during the pandemic. As labor costs increased, more operators worked to improve efficiencies through technology or other operational changes. Slowing sales also gave them less reason for expansion.
Restaurants and bars added 162,100 jobs in both 2023 and 2024, years marked by weak traffic and profitability challenges. By comparison, the industry added an average of 245,000 jobs a year from 2015 to 2019, according to federal data.
The January numbers, meanwhile, came during a month in which overall job growth was tepid. The economy added 143,000 jobs during the month, though the unemployment rate fell to 4%. Job cuts by restaurants certainly played a role. The industry accounts for about one out of every 10 U.S. jobs.
Average hourly earnings for nonsupervisory workers in the leisure and hospitality industries was $19.91, up 3.6% over the past year.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will adjust the jobs numbers every year to ensure more accurate data, which is the reason for the steep, downward adjustment in the most recent figures.
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