New Research Report Tracks Labor Trends
Turnover rates, compensation increases and new-hire diversity mark a few areas on which Black Box Intelligence collected data.

As unique as a restaurant brand’s work culture and personnel may be, Black Box Intelligence’s research has pinned down several trends within today’s labor picture.
“Lower employee turnover clearly correlates to higher traffic and sales—while the costs of replacing staff is continuously increasing—so restaurants need to balance the obvious need to minimize costs with a strong focus on employee retention,” says Victor Fernandez, VP Insights at Black Box Intelligence.
Fernandez shares these insights as Black Box Intelligence releases its State of the Workforce report, informed by the opinions of 158 multiunit restaurant brands, along with workforce benchmarks the firm routinely captures.
Here are a few key takeaways for limited-service establishments:
- On turnover: During Q3 2024, limited-service restaurants reported 135% turnover in hourly roles, compared to a high of 173% in Q1 2022. On the management side, the most recent turnover rate was 55%, up from 45% in 2019.
- On GM compensation: Base salaries were up 2.2% year-over-year, while annual bonuses were up 11.7% YoY, with overall compensation up 3.1%. “At all levels, compensation is consistently the leading specified reason for leaving a job, for both front and back-of-house roles,” Fernandez says. “So—while far from easy—restaurants that prioritize being competitive on base pay, bonuses and employee benefits will continue to outperform their peers.”
- On employee diversity in 2024: New hourly hires from January through August were: 35% African American, 5% Asian, 26% Hispanic and 34% white. “Our research shows that the restaurant industry is becoming more diverse, and continues to prove to be more diverse than the U.S. population at large,” Fernandez notes. It’s interesting to note that restaurant units with a management team that better reflects hourly employee diversity from a racial/ethnic standpoint are performing better on both traffic and sales.”
See Black Box Intelligence’s site for more data, including that of full-service operations, whose hourly employee turnover rates dipped below 100% in Q3.
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