Restaurants & Food Services

Industry Group

Add Comparison

Workforce

12.1M

2019 BLS Estimate

Average Employee Age

31.6

Estimated Job Growth

7.27%

10-Year Projection

Average Salary

$22,660

Average Male Salary

$26,413

Average Female Salary

$25,570

About

The top three occupations in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group are Waiters & waitresses, Cooks, Food service managers, Cashiers, and Food preparation workers. On average, full-time employees in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group work 42.9 hours per week and have an average annual salary of $33,576. Part-time employees in the same industry work 22 hours and earn an average annual salary of $11,074.

The locations with the highest concentration of employees in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group are Columbus City (Central) PUMA, OH, Elmhurst & South Corona PUMA, NY, and LA City (Central/Koreatown) PUMA, CA. The industry that purchases the most products or services from the Hospitals Industry Group is Restaurants & Food Services.

Photo by willowbrookhotels

Workforce

A snapshot of jobs, wages, and opportunities in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group. Waiters & waitresses are the most common position, but the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group employs a relatively high number of Food service managers, compared to other industries.

The highest average salary in Restaurants & Food Services goes to Other Physical Scientists.

Monthly Employment

Showing data for the Leisure and Hospitality industry sector.

Start Year

Y-Axis

38.4%

Year-over-year growth

Employment change between May 2020 and May 2021

As of May 2021, there are 13.9M people employed in the Leisure and Hospitality industry. This represents a 38.4% increase in employment when compared to May 2020.

This chart shows monthly employment numbers for Leisure and Hospitality over time (non-seasonally adjusted).

Occupations by Share

12.1M

Workforce (BLS Estimate)

ACS Estimate: 9.38M

−1.95%

1 Year Growth

± 1.11%

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there were 12.1M people employed in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group in 2019.

According to ACS estimates, the number of people employed in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group has been declining at a rate of −1.95%, , from 9.56M people in 2019 to 9.38M people in 2020.

The following graphic shows the share of employment in Restaurants & Food Services by various occupations according to ACS estimates. Waiters & waitresses represent the largest share of positions held in Restaurants & Food Services at 20.7%, followed by Cooks with 17.6% and Food service managers with 9.25%.

Most Common

The most common occupations in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group, by number of employees, are Waiters & waitresses, Cooks, Food service managers, Cashiers, and Food preparation workers.

Most Specialized

Compared to other Industry Groups, Restaurants & Food Services employs an unusually high number of Food service managers, Waiters & waitresses, and Hosts & hostesses, restaurant, lounge, & coffee shop.

Highest Paid

The highest paid occupations in Restaurants & Food Services, by average wage, are Other Physical Scientists, Computer network architects, and Lawyers, & judges, magistrates, & other judicial workers.

Average Salary

$22,660

AVERAGE WAGE

± $248

On average, employees in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group make $22,660 per year. This number makes Restaurants & Food Services the 267 highest paying Industry Group in the United States out of a total of 269 Industry Groups.

Wage by Location

HIGHEST PAYING PUBLIC USE MICRODATA AREA

HIGHEST PAYING PUMAS

This map shows which public use microdata areas (PUMAs) pay the highest average salary to employees in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group.

Wage Distribution

0.487

WAGE GINI

Restaurants & Food Services has a wage GINI of 0.487, which is more than than the national average of 0.478. In other words, wages are distributed less evenly in Restaurants & Food Services (shown in red) in comparison to the national average for those wage buckets (shown in gray).

Spatial Concentration

Public Use Microdata Areas with RCA

This map shows the PUMAs in the United States that have revealed comparative advantage in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group.

These are locations that employ more people in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group than expected given both the size of that location's overall labor pool and the national size of the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group.

Diversity

Demographic information on the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group in the US. Male employees tend to earn more than Female employees, with average respective salaries of $26,413 and $25,570. So too tend to earn more than other races and ethnicities in this industry.

Composition by Sex

4.91M

FEMALE WORKFORCE

±53.5k

4.46M

MALE WORKFORCE

±51.1k

52.4% of workers in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group are Female, making them the more common sex in the workforce. This chart shows the sex breakdown of the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group.

Wage by Sex in Common Jobs

$26,413

AVERAGE MALE SALARY

±$421

$25,570

AVERAGE FEMALE SALARY

±$403

On average, Male workers in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group make 1.03 times more than their Female counterparts. This chart shows the sex-based wage disparity in the 5 most common occupations in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group.

Wage by Race & Ethnicity in Common Jobs

RACE OR ETHNICITY WITH THE HIGHEST AVERAGE SALARY

Asian
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
White

On average, Asian employees in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group earn 1.22 times more than other races and ethnicities. This chart shows the race and ethnicity-based wage disparities in the 5 most common occupations in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group.

Input/Output

Estimates of the sources of the costs and the purchasers of the products in the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group. Based on estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, this section indicates the amount of money spent by a specific industry in other industries. Professional and business services has the highest single input, by dollars, to the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group, and the largest industry purchasing services from the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group is Professional and business services.

In this flow diagram, all of the industries listed to the left are those places from which the highlighted industry has made purchases. They are the intermediate inputs to the highlighted industry. All those industries listed on the right side are those industries that have made purchases from the highlighted industry. They are the use of outputs of the highlighted industry. The visualizations below offer alternative ways to see and understand this data.

Industrial Flow

The closest comparable data for Restaurants & Food Services is from Arts, Entertainment & Recreation and Accommodation & Food Services.

Intermediate Inputs

The closest comparable data for Restaurants & Food Services is from Arts, Entertainment & Recreation and Accommodation & Food Services.

HIGHEST INPUT INDUSTRY

The Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group gets the most input, by its share of the cost of all intermediate inputs, from the Professional and business services Industry. This visualization does not include labor and capital costs.

Use of Output by Other Industries

The closest comparable data for Restaurants & Food Services is from Arts, Entertainment & Recreation and Accommodation & Food Services.

LARGEST PURCHASING INDUSTRY

The Professional and business services Industry purchases the greatest share of products and services from the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group in order to produce other goods and services. Purchases of the Restaurants & Food Services Industry Group for final consumption by consumers, businesses, or government are not included here.

Projections

Growth projections of the Food services and drinking places industry, both by number of employees and output, from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The national workforce is projected to grow 7.66% in the next ten years. The Food services and drinking places industry has a lower projected workforce growth at 7.27%. Its projected 10-year growth in output (21.4%) is lower than the projected national growth in output (24.2%).

Job Growth

For growth projections, the closest comparible industry reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is Food services and drinking places.

7.27%

Estimated Job Growth

10-year Projection

7.66%

National Growth

10-year Projection

This line chart shows the projected 10-year growth in the number of jobs for Food services and drinking places. This industry is expected to grow less than than 7.66%, the average rate of national job growth.