ArrowStream economists this week looked at April's U.S. restaurant industry's jobs report, which had the largest one-month job loss on record, representing about 13.5 percent of total jobs in the U.S. As the unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent - the highest in more than half a century - to say that the U.S. restaurant industry has been hit hard during this crisis is an understatement.
"During April, the industry lost almost 5.5 million jobs, accounting for more than 25 percent of the total job loss. In April, just 6.4 million people were still employed in the industry, which is smaller than any month in the last three decades. It’s estimated that approximately 78 percent of the April job losses were furloughs. In other words, the layoffs are seen as temporary and the jobs will come back as the industry recovers. And the equity markets’ reaction suggests a bottom in the job losses may have been reached. But we have a lot of recovering to do with likely more disappointing economic data in front of us. This, obviously, is important for the industry as well as the U.S. economy."