Restaurant Job Openings

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) offers mixed signals for the restaurant and lodging labor market. On one hand, job openings in the accommodation and food services sector fell sharply from a revised 825,000 in March to 690,000 in April—the lowest since January 2021. This decline suggests businesses are becoming more cautious in posting new positions amid economic uncertainties. Notably, current openings are well below recent averages: 1.41 million in 2022, 1.10 million in 2023, and 889,000 so far in 2024. That said, this represents only a single month of data, and it will be important to monitor whether job postings recover in May.

On the other hand, despite the caution noted above, hiring activity accelerated. Businesses in the sector hired 852,000 workers in April, up from 746,000 in March and marking the strongest pace since January 2024. At the same time, total separations rose from 708,000 to 809,000—the highest in 13 months. As a result, net hiring reached 43,000 in April, slightly improving on the 38,000 net gain in March.

Quits in the accommodation and food services sector rose from 602,000 in March to 633,000 in April, marking a 14-month high. While quits have generally trended higher year to date, the overall quit rate has cooled notably compared to the elevated levels seen two to three years ago during the “Great Resignation.” In fact, quits in the sector now align with the pre-pandemic average of 633,000 recorded from 2017 to 2019.

Meanwhile, across all nonfarm payroll sectors, quits edged down from 3.34 million in March—a 10-month high—to 3.19 million in April. Quits in the broader U.S. economy were essentially at the pre-pandemic average of 3.34 million in March, signaling a return to more typical labor market patterns, with the current pace now slightly below that benchmark.

In the broader U.S. economy, nonfarm business job openings improved from 7.20 million in March to 7.39 million in April, bouncing back somewhat from a 6-month low. With 7.17 million unemployed individuals in March, this translates to approximately 96.9 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings.

In essence, the labor market is moving closer to a 1-to-1 ration for job openings to the number of people unemployed. While job openings continue to outnumber active job seekers by 226,000, the gap has narrowed significantly as the labor market has cooled notably. For comparison, the ratio of job openings to unemployed individuals was roughly 2-to-1 in July 2021, with just 49.7 unemployed workers per 100 job openings and a surplus of more than 5.84 million job openings compared to available job seekers.