# US restaurant employment rose from 10,853,600 in November 2022 to a series peak of 11,226,500 in May 2026, and was 11,137,500 in July

Page: https://flyvolo.ai/en/changes/ev-20260701-waiter-1
Date: 2026-07-01 · Stage: Labour impact
Can this record move a task judgement? yes
Occupation: https://flyvolo.ai/en/careers/waiter

## Scope

NAICS 7225, restaurants and other eating places, all employees, seasonally adjusted. It covers table service and counter service together, which matters because those two have very different exposure — counter ordering has largely moved to a screen in many markets and table service has not — so a flat aggregate can hide two series moving in opposite directions. It counts jobs and not hours, and in an industry where scheduling is the main lever that is a serious limit: covers per server can rise substantially with no change in this line at all.

## Source

- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CES series CES7072250001 (restaurants and other eating places) — https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES7072250001 (primary source)

## What this means

Restaurant employment reached a series high in 2026, which is the context for the one completed automation this occupation has had. Employment rose through the period anyway, and a jobs count cannot see whether covers per server rose with it.

## What it does not show yet

It combines counter service and table service, which have very different exposure, so a flat aggregate can hide two series moving apart. And it counts jobs rather than hours or tables — the number this page says decides your working life is invisible in it.

## How to verify it yourself

Write down how many tables you covered on your busiest shift this month and on your busiest shift a year ago. That is the number, and you are the only person who can produce it.


More: https://flyvolo.ai/llms.txt