Restaurant Job Openings

The accommodation and foodservices sector recorded 912,000 job openings in December, a slight uptick from a revised 910,000 in November. Job openings have generally trended upward since reaching a post-pandemic low of 746,000 in May, averaging 901,000 in 2024. Despite a broader labor market cooldown in recent years, job postings in the sector remain above the 2017-2019 monthly average of 835,000, gradually stabilizing from post-pandemic peaks. For context, job openings in the sector averaged 1,410,000 in 2022 and 1,075,000 in 2023. 

In December, businesses in the sector hired 788,000 workers—a strong figure, though below the peak of 1,005,000 in September 2023. Total separations declined to 751,000 from 781,000 in November, resulting in net hiring of 37,000 workers for the month, up from 9,000 in November.

Quits in the accommodation and foodservices sector rose from 529,000 in November to 547,000 in December, continuing to reflect a significant slowdown in labor turnover. On average, quits in the sector stood at 787,000 in 2022 and 704,000 in 2023, marking a notable decline from the turbulence of the “Great Resignation.” Additionally, November’s quits remained below the pre-pandemic average of 633,000 recorded from 2017 to 2019.

Across all nonfarm payrolls, quits edged up from 3.13 million in November to 3.20 million in December. Overall, quits in the U.S. economy have fallen below the pre-pandemic average of 3.34 million, signaling a return to more typical labor market dynamics.

In the broader U.S. economy, nonfarm business job openings declined from 8.16 million in November to 7.60 million in December. With 6.89 million unemployed individuals in December, this translates to approximately 90.6 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings.

While job openings continue to outnumber active job seekers by 714,000, the gap has narrowed as the labor market has cooled. The ratio of job openings to unemployed individuals was nearly 2-to-1 in December 2022, with just 51.8 unemployed workers per 100 job openings and a surplus of more than 5.3 million job openings compared to available job seekers.