Food service employment statistics at a glance
Food service employment statistics show an industry that is both massive and unusually concentrated in frontline roles.
In May 2023, food services and drinking places had 12,002,830 total jobs with a mean hourly wage of $16.93 and a mean annual wage of $35,220 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
Contents
- Key takeaways
- Industry size and pay
- Where the jobs are
- Management and office roles
- Specialized professional roles
- Food prep and serving roles
- What the numbers say about staffing
Key takeaways
- Food preparation and serving related occupations account for 10,543,130 jobs, or 87.84% of industry employment (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
- Food and beverage serving workers alone account for 5,702,580 jobs, or 47.51% of industry employment (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
- Cooks and food preparation workers account for 2,574,380 jobs, or 21.45% of industry employment (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
- Supervisors of food preparation and serving workers account for 1,089,010 jobs, or 9.07% of industry employment (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
- The sector’s job base is large, but the wage distribution is wide, ranging from $29,710 for cooks, fast food, to $154,680 for chief executives (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
Industry size and pay
Food service employment statistics are easiest to understand when you start with the total size of the sector.
12,002,830 jobs in food services and drinking places means the industry supports a labor market larger than many people expect (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places). That scale matters because even small changes in staffing, turnover, or scheduling can affect a very large number of workers.
The average pay level also tells a clear story. The sector’s mean hourly wage was $16.93, and the mean annual wage was $35,220 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places). Those figures frame the rest of the dataset: the industry is built around a very large number of positions, but most of those positions sit in lower-paid operational work rather than in higher-paid corporate or technical roles.
Fast facts
- Total jobs: 12,002,830 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Mean hourly wage: $16.93 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Mean annual wage: $35,220 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Largest occupational family: food preparation and serving related occupations with 10,543,130 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
Where the jobs are
A compact view makes the workforce structure easier to see.
| Occupation group or role | Jobs | Share of industry | Wage figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food preparation and serving related occupations | 10,543,130 | 87.84% | - |
| Food and beverage serving workers | 5,702,580 | 47.51% | - |
| Cooks and food preparation workers | 2,574,380 | 21.45% | - |
| Supervisors of food preparation and serving workers | 1,089,010 | 9.07% | - |
| Waiters and waitresses | 1,932,370 | 16.10% | - |
| Fast food and counter workers | 3,205,050 | 26.70% | - |
| Bartenders | 522,720 | - | $37,820 |
| Food preparation workers | 491,470 | - | $31,960 |
This table shows the industry’s core reality: the workforce is overwhelmingly concentrated in serving, cooking, and supervising those functions. The non-frontline job categories matter, but they are much smaller slices of the total labor force.
Management and office roles
Food service employment statistics are not just about hourly workers. The industry also supports a substantial management layer that keeps operations running, schedules aligned, and compliance tasks under control.
Management occupations accounted for 395,630 jobs, or 3.30% of industry employment, with a mean hourly wage of $34.06 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places). That is a relatively small share of the workforce, but it is still a large absolute number because the industry itself is so big.
The strongest management categories in the dataset include:
- Food service managers: 202,590 jobs, mean annual wage $66,620 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- General and operations managers: 179,520 jobs, mean hourly wage $35.33 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Top executives: 181,060 jobs, or 1.51% of industry employment, mean annual wage $74,170 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Managers, all other: 2,360 jobs, mean annual wage $77,210 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
The management pay range is useful because it shows how broad “management” really is inside the industry. At the top of that range, chief executives had 1,540 jobs in the industry and a mean annual wage of $154,680 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places). At the more common operations level, food service managers had 202,590 jobs and a mean annual wage of $66,620 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
Why it matters
The management layer is large enough to support a real career ladder, not just a single supervisory step. It also shows that food service employment statistics cover far more than restaurant floor staffing. Planning, scheduling, facilities, payroll, marketing, and executive roles all sit inside the same industry count.
Specialized professional roles
The dataset includes a long tail of professional and technical jobs that are easy to overlook if you only think about restaurants as front-of-house and kitchen labor. These roles are smaller individually, but they reveal how operationally complex the sector is.
Business, finance, and operations
- Financial specialists had 8,230 jobs and a mean annual wage of $85,450 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Accountants and auditors had 8,110 jobs and a mean annual wage of $85,570 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Project management specialists had 640 jobs and a mean annual wage of $82,440 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Management analysts had 320 jobs and a mean annual wage of $77,790 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Business operations specialists, all other had 6,740 jobs and a mean annual wage of $60,670 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
Human resources and workforce support
- Human resources specialists had 5,940 jobs and a mean annual wage of $62,880 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Compensation, benefits, and job analysis specialists had 60 jobs and a mean annual wage of $57,700 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Training and development specialists had 28,940 jobs and a mean annual wage of $33,830 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
Training and development specialists are especially notable because the job count is relatively high for a specialist role. That suggests a real need for onboarding, service training, and operational standardization across the industry (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
Meeting, event, and brand functions
- Meeting, convention, and event planners had 7,660 jobs and a mean annual wage of $50,880 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Market research analysts and marketing specialists had 6,060 jobs and a mean annual wage of $55,170 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales managers had 2,490 jobs and a mean annual wage of $85,990 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Advertising and promotions managers had a mean hourly wage of $61.44 and a mean annual wage of $127,800 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Public relations specialists had 1,650 jobs and a mean annual wage of $41,670 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
These roles show that the industry needs more than labor at the counter. It also needs brand management, event coordination, customer communication, and commercial planning.
Food prep and serving roles
This is the center of gravity for food service employment statistics. The occupation family is huge, and the jobs are distributed across prep, cooking, serving, and supervision.
Food preparation and serving related occupations had 10,543,130 jobs, representing 87.84% of industry employment (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places). That one statistic explains almost everything about the workforce mix.
Core occupation groups
| Occupation | Jobs | Share of industry | Wage figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food and beverage serving workers | 5,702,580 | 47.51% | - |
| Cooks and food preparation workers | 2,574,380 | 21.45% | - |
| Supervisors of food preparation and serving workers | 1,089,010 | 9.07% | - |
| Waiters and waitresses | 1,932,370 | 16.10% | - |
| Fast food and counter workers | 3,205,050 | 26.70% | - |
This is a service-heavy labor market. Nearly half of all jobs sit in the broad serving-worker category, and the cooking/prep side adds another large block. That leaves a much smaller share for everything else.
Cooking jobs
The cooking family is a strong signal of how the industry functions behind the scenes.
- Chefs and head cooks: 112,820 jobs, mean annual wage $59,960 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers: 976,190 jobs, mean annual wage $42,250 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Cooks, fast food: 656,880 jobs, mean annual wage $29,710 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Cooks, institution and cafeteria: 72,950 jobs, mean annual wage $37,150 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Cooks, restaurant: 1,251,670 jobs, mean annual wage $35,570 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Food preparation workers: 491,470 jobs, mean annual wage $31,960 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
The restaurant cook count is the biggest piece here, but fast food cooks also represent a major job block. Together with food prep workers, the numbers show how much of the industry depends on repeatable, high-volume kitchen labor (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
Serving jobs
The serving side is even larger than the kitchen side.
- Bartenders had 522,720 jobs and a mean annual wage of $37,820 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Waiters and waitresses had 1,932,370 jobs and represented 16.10% of industry employment (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
- Fast food and counter workers had 3,205,050 jobs and represented 26.70% of industry employment (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places)
A simple way to read those numbers is that the guest-facing labor pool is enormous and highly structured. The front end of the business is not a side function; it is one of the main labor engines of the sector.
What the numbers say about staffing
Food service employment statistics point to three practical truths.
First, the industry is dominated by a few very large occupation families, not by a broad evenly spread mix. Food preparation and serving related occupations alone account for nearly nine out of every ten jobs in the sector (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
Second, management and professional support roles are real but comparatively small. That means the industry depends on a relatively thin layer of higher-paid specialists to support a very large service workforce. For example, management occupations account for 395,630 jobs, while accountants and auditors account for 8,110 jobs and human resources specialists account for 5,940 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places).
Third, the wage structure is wide enough to show clear internal segmentation. At the lower end of the provided set, cooks, fast food had a mean annual wage of $29,710. At the higher end, chief executives had a mean annual wage of $154,680 (BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places). Between those points sit the many operational roles that keep the industry functioning day to day.
A quick read of the workforce shape
- The industry is large enough that even small percentage changes involve thousands of jobs.
- Frontline service and kitchen positions dominate employment.
- Supervisory and management roles are significant, but they sit on a much smaller base.
- Professional support jobs exist in meaningful numbers, especially in finance, HR, training, and planning.
- The wage ladder is broad, which suggests different levels of responsibility, specialization, and decision-making across the sector.
Selected role snapshot
| Role | Jobs | Wage figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief executives | 1,540 | $154,680 annual | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
| Advertising and promotions managers | - | $61.44 hourly, $127,800 annual | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
| Food service managers | 202,590 | $66,620 annual | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
| Training and development specialists | 28,940 | $33,830 annual | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
| Bartenders | 522,720 | $37,820 annual | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
| Waiters and waitresses | 1,932,370 | - | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
| Food preparation workers | 491,470 | $31,960 annual | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
| Security guards | 27,280 | $35,780 annual | BLS OEWS May 2023 food services and drinking places |
That mix reinforces the same pattern seen throughout the dataset. The business depends on a large serving core, a large kitchen core, and a smaller but essential band of supervisors and specialists.