The restaurant and food service industry are facing a reckoning— Adapt or Die

Pre-pandemic, despite the total number of restaurants nationwide increasing +16% (‘07’-’18), new entrants joining the labor pool were drying up or flat (leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic). The teen labor force participation rate has been stagnant for 4 yrs and counting— In 2007 there were 1.7M teens working in restaurants; and in 2018 there were still only 1.7M teens working in restaurants. More from CNBC

In the restaurant and food service space teens used to dominate the adults aged 55+ by a 3–1 ratio; But prior to 2020 it was down to 2–1. So restaurants face a real labor challenge where they aren’t attracting young entrants to the sector, and over the last decade alone they’ve dealt with triple-digit turnover rates as the norm. Coupled with cyclical seasonal hiring, a severely low length of employment <2 months (average), a replacement period over 30 days (pre-COVID), and high replacement costs approaching $6,000 per head. The total expenses stack up to almost $150,000 per location per year. See The Real Truth About Hiring +Staffing in Food & Beverage and Hospitality And we must accept reality that COVID and the government response are having a direct impact on the labor pool.

These labor challenges alone (and how it’s been addressed) cumulatively drained industry coffers -$146B in…