RESTAURANTS HIRE LEAPS IN OCTOBER

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), restaurants and hotels employed nearly twice the number of workers in October than they did the previous month, even though the pool of job seekers sharply decreased.

According to data, 164,000 people were added to the employment records of dining, drinking, and lodging establishments during September, as compared to the 88,000 hired in September. Restaurants and bars accounted for 119,000 of these new hires, which is a significant increase from the net gain in September's 29,000 jobs and a decrease of 24,700 in August.

The total number of workers in restaurants and bars rose to an 11.4million, which is an increase of either 1.1 million or 10% over the same month of 2020. Restaurant customers were returning to their dining rooms faster than the facilities could staff.

According to BLS, however, the number of hospitality jobs is still below the level of February 2020 before the pandemic erupted to its full extent.

According to the National Restaurant Association, 78% of restaurants reported being short of staff at the end of the third quarter. Full-service establishments were more affected than fast-service ones (81% vs. 75%), research shows.

The strong hiring in the hospitality sector was in line with an unexpectedly high level of re-employment across the country. According to BLS, the national unemployment rate fell to 4.6% in October when employers other than the farm sector hired 531,00 workers.

The most significant point of the pandemic was April 2020. This was the month when the national unemployment rate reached 14.8%. This is the highest level in 72 years of extensive federal data collection on the labor market.

Brinker International, Chili's parent company, reported Wednesday that the number of vacancies in its employment ranks cut sales by 3% to 55% in the most recent quarter. This was despite an increase of 1,000 workers per week.

Economists are concerned about an inflation spike due to the sharp increase in hiring and rapid drop in unemployment. Restaurant prices are on the rise, and this is largely due to the labor crisis in the sector.

Chili's has, for example, already increased its menu prices by around 3% in response to what it expects will be an extremely high single-digit increase in key costs.

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