Research
April 01, 2025

Restaurant Job Openings

Accommodation and Foodservices Job Openings Dip to Five-Month Low in February

The accommodation and food services sector reported 867,000 job openings in February, down from a revised 901,000 in January and a five-month low. While the broader labor market has cooled over the past couple of years, job postings in the sector remain somewhat above the pre-pandemic monthly average of 835,000 (2017-2019), gradually stabilizing from post-pandemic highs. For comparison, job openings in the sector averaged 1,410,000 in 2022, 1,095,000 in 2023, and 889,000 in 2024.

Overall hiring has also weakened notably over the past two years. In February, businesses in the sector hired 707,000 workers, marking an eight-month low. Hiring activity peaked at 1,059,000 in May 2022. Meanwhile, total separations rose edged up to 747,000 in February, resulting in a net loss of 40,000 workers for the month, the second straight net hiring decline.

Quits in the accommodation and food services sector rose from 536,000 in January to 554,000 in February, a four-month high. With that said, quits in the sector have largely held steady for the past six months, averaging 543,000 since September. This stability underscores a continued slowdown in labor turnover, a stark contrast to the volatility seen during the “Great Resignation.” For context, quits in the sector stood at 656,000 a year ago and remain below the pre-pandemic average of 633,000 recorded from 2017 to 2019.

Meanwhile, across all nonfarm payrolls, quits slipped from 3.26 million in January to 3.20 million in February. Overall, quits in the broader U.S. economy remained slightly below the pre-pandemic average of 3.34 million, suggesting a gradual return to more typical labor market trends.


In the broader U.S. economy, nonfarm business job openings decreased from 7.76 million in January to 7.57 million in February. With 7.05 million unemployed individuals in February, this translates to approximately 93.2 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings.

While job openings continue to outnumber active job seekers by 516,000, 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.