Now Hiring: Restaurants

This looks to be a sizzling summer for teens wanting to work in restaurants. With 6.2 million teens in the labor force this April – the highest level in more than15 years – restaurants are poised to benefit from a strong pipeline of talent heading into the summer season, says Michelle Korsmo, President & CEO of the National Restaurant Association.

More specifically, according the NRA’s recently released 27th annual Eating and Drinking Place Summer Employment Forecast, restaurants are projected to add 490,000 jobs this summer. That’s up from 459,000 posts last year, but still well below the record of 515,000 set a decade ago.

Overall, the NRA notes, restaurants are the largest employer of teens in the U.S, providing jobs to 1.9 million 16-19-year-olds – about one-third of all working teens. That group grew to more than 6.2 million in the labor force this April, offering a key boost to seasonal hiring.

The NRA points to restaurant operators such as Jeff Gosnear, President of Grotto Pizza, as a typical beneficiary of these trends. His chain, which operates 22 locations across Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, grows from 900 employees in the off-season to about 1,600 during the summer.

“A lot of our managers started as summer employees,” said Gosnear, who got his start in restaurants as a 16-year-old dishwasher. “Today, more than half of our management team began their careers at Grotto as teenagers. One of our vice presidents started as a pizza maker at 16 and has been with us for nearly four decades.”

Gosnear says this year is shaping up to be Grotto Pizza’s first fully staffed summer since before the pandemic, a milestone that reflects both an improved labor pool and the ongoing draw of summer restaurant work.

“We’re seeing people come back to the industry in a real way,” he added. “The intensity of summer service, the sense of camaraderie, the pace – for a lot of people, it’s addictive in the best way.”

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