Restaurant Industry Facts

Download 2008 Restaurant Industry Fact Sheet (PDF) or purchase the full 2008 Restaurant Industry Forecast.

• Sales: $558 billion
• Locations: 945,000 — serving more than 70 billion meal and snack occasions
• Employees: 13.1 million — one of the largest private-sector employers

Restaurant industry sales (Billions of current dollars)

Type of Establishment 2008 Estimated Sales (Billions) Commercial $510.4    Eating places $376.7    Drinking places $16.5    Managed services $38.3    Lodging-place restaurants $27.6    Retail, vending,     recreation,     mobile $51.4 Other $47.8

• Restaurant-industry sales are forecast to advance 4.4% in 2008 and equal 4% of the U.S. gross domestic product.
• The overall economic impact of the restaurant industry is expected to exceed $1.5 trillion in 2008, including sales in related industries such as agriculture, transportation and manufacturing.
• Every dollar spent by consumers in restaurants generates an additional $2.34 spent in other industries allied with the restaurant industry.
• Each additional dollar spent in restaurants generates an additional $0.99 in household earnings throughout the economy.
• Average unit sales in 2005 were $833,000 at fullservice restaurants and $694,000 at limited-service restaurants.
• More than seven out of 10 eating-and-drinking places are single-unit (independent) operations.

• The restaurant industry employs an estimated 13.1 million people, making it the nation's second-largest employer outside of government.
• Eating-and-drinking places are extremely labor-intensive -- sales per full-time-equivalent employee were $61,344 in 2006 and notably lower than other industries.
• The restaurant industry provides work for more than 9 percent of those employed in the United States.
• The restaurant industry is expected to add 2 million jobs over the next decade, for total employment of 15.1 million in 2018.

• Women and minorities represent three of five owners of eating and drinking place firms, compared to less than half of all U.S. firms.
• One-quarter of eating and drinking place firms are owned by women, 15% by Asians, 8% by Hispanics and 4% by African-Americans.
• Eating-and-drinking places employ more minority managers than any other industry.
• Nearly half of all adults have worked in the restaurant industry at some point during their lives, and 32 percent of adults got their first job experience in a restaurant.
• The number of foodservice managers is projected to increase 11 percent from 2008 to 2018.

• $1.5 billion — Restaurant-industry sales on a typical day in 2008.
• 83 percent — Percent of adults who said there are more healthy options available at quickservice restaurants than there were two years ago.
• 70 percent — Percent of adults who said their favorite restaurant foods provide flavor and taste sensations which cannot easily duplicate in their home kitchens.
• 64 percent — Percent of adults who said there are more restaurants they enjoy going to now than there were two years ago.
• 62 percent — Percent of adults who said they are likely to make a restaurant choice based on how environmentally friendly a restaurant is.
• 48 percent — Percent of adults who have visited a restaurant’s Web site.