What is the size and scope of the restaurant industry in your state?
Restaurants are engines of economic growth across the country, injecting billions into local and state economies. Whether it’s creating jobs, developing careers, or paying local taxes, the foodservice industry generates a significant impact in communities large and small, urban and rural. Check out the fact sheets below to get a better idea of the size and economic impact of the restaurant industry in your state.
Restaurant and Foodservice Industry By-the-Numbers
Below are high-level overviews of the impact of the restaurant industry in each state. Pulled from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis and U.S. Census Bureau data, these snapshots include the number of locations, overall annual sales, the number of jobs in the industry, and an overview of eating and drinking places by congressional district.
The restaurant and foodservice industry is the nation’s second largest private employer, with more than 15.5M people working at more than 1M outlets and is the nation’s most diverse industry. The industry is expected to record sales volume in 2024, and every dollar spent in restaurants contributes $2.68 to the national economy.
Fact Sheets: Industry Size by State
Economic Contributions of the Restaurant and Foodservice Industry
Go deeper on the economic contributions of eating and drinking places in each state’s economy. The analyses below use IMPLAN data to derive the total economic contributions of the industry by state, metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and congressional district. They provide insight on the industry by segment, including fullservice restaurants, limited-service restaurants, and other food and beverage businesses.
Industry impacts go well beyond the direct contributions of restaurants, as the sector produces large spillover effects on the economy. In economics, this is known as the multiplier effect.
Eating and drinking places will directly contribute $1.4T in output (or sales) to the U.S. economy in 2024 dollars, based on estimates of publicly available 2022 data. That’s roughly equivalent to 6% of real GDP. In addition, in 2022, the industry reported it had 14.2M employees and $472.4B in total labor income. That included all sources of income—wages, salaries, and proprietors’ income—as well as benefits.
These contributions will spur additional spending in the U.S. economy, including from employees, suppliers, and others in the surrounding area. Adding in these additional impacts, the industry will make a total contribution of $3.5T in output to the U.S. economy in 2024, or 15.6% of real GDP, with 22.9M employees and $1.1T in total labor income.
Eating and drinking places in the United States will pay $216.7B in taxes to all levels of government. Including additional spillover impacts; that figure will rise to $490.4B in total taxes being attributable to the sector.
Find the details on the full impact of the restaurant industry on the United States here.
Fact Sheets: Economic Impact by State
Click here for an outline of official definitions for the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) used in these documents. A complete list and more information can be found here.