Independent Operators

Restaurant labor shortage not going anywhere fast

July 9, 2021

Black Box Intelligence has dug up some interesting labor shortage data in recent weeks revealing that it's an ongoing issue with many layers.

For instance, although the U.S. Department of Labor's June Jobs Report found that the number of U.S. jobs well-exceeded Dow Jones expectations of 706,000 that month, with a total of 850,000 new jobs, wages also rose and were up 3.6% year-over-year, with workers in restaurants and across hospitality hauling in a healthy 7.9% more than they were before the pandemic hit the nation. Black Box said this suggested that increased wages must continue forward for the jobs market to regain its footing.

And make no mistake about it, according to analysts, staffing levels at individuals restaurants remain below par, the company said in a release. The data show that the median limited-service chain ran its stores with nearly one less employee this May than in May 2019.

And guess what? Customers are noticing that this is an issue.

Black Box said that online chatter about poor restaurant staffing — from diners' reviews to just comments — is growing, with a real spike recorded this past March. In fact, from February to March 2021, "understaffed" mentions increased 78% for limited service and a hefty 181% for full-service restaurants. And at full-service brands the mentions of understaffing have continued to build every month since March as well.

For limited-service restaurants, Black Box found that "understaffed" and related mentions increased steadily since March, but saw a decline in June. The month with the largest number of mentions related to understaffing over the last six months was May.

Restaurant stats for the last full week of June, on a two-year comparison, meanwhile, showed:

• Positive restaurant industry same-store sales growth for the 15th consecutive week.
• The week ending June 27 was the second strongest week of same-store sales and traffic growth in the last 10 weeks.
• Average check per guest or transaction continued to grow at an accelerated pace.
• Dine-in sales remained far from fully recovered, especially for limited-service restaurants.
• Negative same-store sales growth in Vermont and North Dakota.
• Top-performing sales growth in the Western region, the Southeast and Florida.
• Worst-performing sales growth in New York-New Jersey, New England and the Mid-Atlantic.