Full-Service Restaurants Led Industry Job Growth, Adding 55,000 in 2025

Full-service restaurants led the industry last year, adding a net 55,000 jobs in 2025, Nation’s Restaurant News reporter Alicia Kelso reported Feb. 11, 2026. That gain stands against a still-large deficit: as of December 2025 full-service employment remained roughly 210,000 jobs, or 3.7%, below pre-pandemic readings.

The full-service segment suffered one of the largest early-pandemic shocks, losing nearly 3.7 million jobs during the first two months of COVID-19, and it has yet to fully recover. The National Restaurant Association’s outlook cautioned that employment growth will vary by segment and warned that operators “be likely to lay off employees in 2025 if business conditions deteriorate and the U.S. economy goes into recession. Employment growth will vary by restaurant segment. By the end of 2025, it’s likely fullservice restaurant employment will still be more than 150K jobs below pre-pandemic levels.”

The broader eating-and-drinking-places category showed steady momentum late in 2025. “In the last eight months, eating and drinking places added a net 172,000 jobs, versus the overall economy, which has added just 129,000 jobs,” the reporting noted, and industry employment had climbed to about 105,000 jobs, or 0.9%, above the February 2020 peak as of January 2026. National labor-market context from BLS data cited in the coverage showed the U.S. economy added about 130,000 jobs in January 2026 and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.4% in December. NRN also noted that “January marked the eighth consecutive month for restaurant industry job gains.”

Not all segments performed the same. Snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars - including coffee, donut and ice cream shops - added a net 35,000 jobs in 2025 and, as of December 2025, were about 200,000 jobs, or 25%, above February 2020 levels. Quick-service and fast casual establishments were 79,000 jobs, or roughly 2%, above pre-pandemic employment as of December 2025. Segment-level figures are lagged by one month, meaning December 2025 is the most current data cited for those comparisons.

Geography remained uneven: more than five years after the pandemic onset, restaurant staffing levels were below pre-pandemic readings in 18 states and the District of Columbia. State-level comparisons using fourth quarter 2019 versus fourth quarter 2025 show West Virginia about 6% below, Maine and New Mexico each about 5% below, and Massachusetts and Illinois about 4% below. By contrast, Idaho led gains at about +20%, Utah +14% and Nevada +13% for the same Q4 2019 to Q4 2025 comparison; the state analysis uses 2019 as the pre-pandemic baseline because seasonally adjusted February 2020 figures are not available for every state.

Looking ahead, National Restaurant Association excerpts included in the reporting projected the industry would add roughly 200,000 jobs in 2025, bringing total restaurant and foodservice employment to about 15.9 million, and forecast an average of 150,000 jobs a year between 2025 and 2035 to reach 17.4 million by 2035. The reporting and projections are accompanied by methodological notes: segment data are lagged one month, state comparisons use Q4 2019 baselines, and the January 2026 aggregate comparisons draw on BLS summaries cited in the coverage. Photo credit for the original item was listed as Photo courtesy of Pexels / Tim Mossholder.