State of Restaurant Workforce
Restaurant Staffing
Staffing is healing across hourly and non-GM roles, but GM capacity is still the bottleneck—and fully staffed units are winning on traffic.
Staffing By Position
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant Hourly FOH | 5% | 33% | 46% | 53% |
| Restaurant Hourly BOH | 10% | 21% | 37% | 46% |
| Non-GM Manager | 15% | 26% | 36% | 47% |
| General Manager | 45% | 65% | 65% | 66% |
© 2025 Black Box Intelligence. Research proprietary to BBI and exclusive to BBI. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION
Takeaways
- Staffing recovery since 2022 is broad-based: FOH 5%→53% (+48 pts), BOH 10%→46% (+36 pts), Non-GM 15%→47% (+32 pts), and GM 45%→66% (+21 pts).
- Momentum continued in 2025 vs. 2024 for hourly and non-GM roles: FOH 46%→53%, BOH 37%→46%, and Non-GM 36%→47%—now over half of companies are fully staffed at FOH and nearly half at BOH and Non-GM.
- GM coverage has essentially plateaued since 2023 (65%→65%→66%), making GM capacity the lingering constraint despite widespread staffing gains.
- Recommendation: Prioritize GM capacity—stabilize tenure with schedule relief and above-median bonus targets, build an assistant-manager pipeline, and track “fully staffed” weekly by role.
Staffing Impact on Performance
Full-service brands that are fully staffed post stronger comp traffic than their segment peers.
| Position | Difference in Traffic Growth vs. Those Understaffed* |
|---|---|
| BOH Hourly | +2% |
| FOH Hourly | +4% |
| Other Management | +4% |
| General Manager | +2% |
*Data shown as difference relative to company’s industry segment
© 2025 Black Box Intelligence. Research proprietary to BBI and exclusive to BBI. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION
Takeaways
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Being fully staffed lifts traffic across every role versus understaffed peers.
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The biggest gains come from FOH and other management at +4% each; BOH and GMs still add a meaningful +2%.
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Treat staffing as a demand lever: prioritize FOH floor coverage and manager schedules first, then BOH/GM backfill, and track “fully staffed” weekly.
Most Effective Restaurant Hiring Channels
Takeaways
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Online job boards and your company website are the two most effective sources of hire for both hourly non-management and restaurant management roles.
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Referrals are a top-three channel across both groups, while rehire + walk-ins matter for hourly and direct recruiting + social (incl. LinkedIn) matter for managers.
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Source strategy should differ by role: lean on referrals/rehire to speed hourly hiring, and prioritize direct outreach and social media to build stronger manager pipelines.
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Recommendation: Make referrals and rehires always-on with clear incentives; run targeted direct-recruiting campaigns for managers; and track source-to-hire conversion, time-to-fill, and 90-day retention by channel.
What winning brands are doing
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They protect GM bandwidth first, stabilizing GM seats before scaling traffic programs because the GM constraint caps execution.
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They operationalize referrals and rehires as always-on channels and pair them with targeted social recruiting for manager pipelines.
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They make “fully staffed” a weekly KPI and tie staffing status to local traffic plans and labor deployment.
State of the Workforce Webinar
Where This Data Came From
Everything cited here was originally shared in our annual deep dive webinar into the state of the restaurant workforce, which was taken from our Total Rewards Survey and our Restaurant Performance Network – meaning all insight comes straight from the HR teams and payroll platforms of the biggest restaurant brands in the country.
