Research
September 03, 2025
Restaurant Job Openings
Labor market softens despite solid restaurant and lodging job openings in July
Job openings in the restaurant and lodging sector edged up from 864,000 in June to 878,000 in July, stabilizing after a recent peak of 1,062,000 in May. Through the first seven months of 2025, openings have averaged 880,000—closely aligned with the July figure—suggesting a degree of steadiness in demand for labor within the accommodation and foodservices industry. While job postings have moderated from the elevated levels seen during the tight labor market of 2022 and 2023, the current data reflect underlying resilience in the sector’s employment outlook.
However, signs of labor market softening are more apparent in the hiring and separations data. Hiring in the sector declined to 818,000 in July, marking a four-month low. Meanwhile, total separations rose to 839,000, resulting in net hiring of -21,000 for the month. This follows a net decline of -44,000 in June and represents the fourth negative net hiring figure year-to-date. These trends point to a cooling in labor dynamics, even as job openings remain relatively stable.
What is interesting about this development is that workers are less likely to quit their jobs during times of economic uncertainty, making this trend more notable. There are clearly other factors at play. While the overall quit rate has cooled notably from the peak levels seen during the “Great Resignation,” this upward trend defies conventional wisdom and challenges the prevailing narrative of reduced churn in the labor market into what is now referred to as the “Great Stay.” Quits in the sector have exceeded the pre-pandemic (2017-2019) average of 633,000 in each of the last 3 months.
By contrast, quits across all nonfarm sectors were little changed in July at 3.21 million. The broader U.S. quit level remains just below the pre-pandemic average of 3.34 million, suggesting a return to more typical labor market dynamics.
In a notable shift, U.S. nonfarm business job openings declined from 7.36 million in June to 7.18 million in July—a 10-month low. At the same time, the number of unemployed individuals rose to 7.24 million, meaning there were 55,000 more unemployed workers than available job openings. This marks the first time since April 2021 that the number of job seekers has exceeded the number of open positions, signaling a further cooling in the labor market.
For context, the labor market was significantly tighter in July 2021, when the ratio of job openings to unemployed individuals was roughly 2-to-1. At that time, there were just 49.7 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings, with a surplus of more than 5.84 million job openings relative to job seekers. As such, these data continue to reflect a labor market that—while still solid overall—is gradually softening and normalizing toward pre-pandemic conditions.
However, signs of labor market softening are more apparent in the hiring and separations data. Hiring in the sector declined to 818,000 in July, marking a four-month low. Meanwhile, total separations rose to 839,000, resulting in net hiring of -21,000 for the month. This follows a net decline of -44,000 in June and represents the fourth negative net hiring figure year-to-date. These trends point to a cooling in labor dynamics, even as job openings remain relatively stable.
What is interesting about this development is that workers are less likely to quit their jobs during times of economic uncertainty, making this trend more notable. There are clearly other factors at play. While the overall quit rate has cooled notably from the peak levels seen during the “Great Resignation,” this upward trend defies conventional wisdom and challenges the prevailing narrative of reduced churn in the labor market into what is now referred to as the “Great Stay.” Quits in the sector have exceeded the pre-pandemic (2017-2019) average of 633,000 in each of the last 3 months.
By contrast, quits across all nonfarm sectors were little changed in July at 3.21 million. The broader U.S. quit level remains just below the pre-pandemic average of 3.34 million, suggesting a return to more typical labor market dynamics.
For context, the labor market was significantly tighter in July 2021, when the ratio of job openings to unemployed individuals was roughly 2-to-1. At that time, there were just 49.7 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings, with a surplus of more than 5.84 million job openings relative to job seekers. As such, these data continue to reflect a labor market that—while still solid overall—is gradually softening and normalizing toward pre-pandemic conditions.
