Restaurant Industry Trends - Employment

As 2012 ushers in an improving, but still highly competitive job market, more workers may be looking beyond their own backyard for employment options. Forty-four percent of workers said they would be willing to relocate for a career opportunity, according to a nationwide study by CareerBuilder.

As economic malaise bleeds into another New Year, employers are making hard-nosed decisions about benefits and compensation. That means for many in the nation's workforce, compensation remains flat, health care premiums are up, the 401(k) match has disappeared and bonuses are smaller or nonexistent. The result is not hard to guess.

Kronos Incorporated today announced the October release of the Kronos Retail Labor Index™, a family of metrics and indices that characterize the current state of the demand and supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector.

With millions of people looking for employment, the workplace these days is an increasingly unhealthy environment for those who still have, and are trying to keep, their jobs. One key reason -- a stagnant economy that reduces the leverage employees typically have when they attempt to negotiate improved working conditions, move up in their organization or find better jobs outside the company.

Hourly hiring managers foresee a steady increase in holiday, seasonal hires this year over the last three seasons, edging ever closer to pre-recessionary hiring levels – but not all the way back – according to a fourth-annual survey commissioned by Snagajob, hourly job experts.

U.S. employers can expect to see healthcare costs rise by 8.5 percent in 2012, compared with an increase of 8 percent in 2011, according to the annual report on medical cost trends, published by PwC’s Health Research Institute.

David Insler, a senior vice president at New York-based Sibson Consulting, estimates that only about 35% to 40% of companies do performance reviews well.

Over the years I try to attend Career Fairs in the Boston area, mostly to check the types/levels of jobs available and the mood of the attendees (keeping my ear to the ground).

The job markets are changing and candidates will soon have choices again.

The restaurant industry is not only an important source of jobs and careers, it is vitally important to the success of many other industries in the economy. As McDonald’s celebrates its National Hiring Day by adding up to 50,000 individuals to its roster, the National Restaurant Association has compiled a report of its research on the latest restaurant industry employment trends and the unique upward mobility that the industry offers.