Number of Cooks and Chefs Employed in the U.S. Reaches All-Time High

2 Min Read

The number of cooks and chefs employed in the U.S. has reaches an all-time high, according to a Chef's Pencil's report based on the latest Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the end of April 2023.

Key takeaways include:

Employment in the Food Preparation and Serving category is down seven percent compared to pre-pandemic levels, and recovery is very uneven within the professional groups. San Francisco, (down 18 percent), Detroit, (down 17 percent) and Portland, Oregon (down 17 percent) metro areas are among the slowest recovering metros, with employment in the sector performing substantially worse than the national average (-seven percent).

On the other hand, the metros of Phoenix, AZ (up three percent), Jacksonville, FL (up 1%), Dallas-Forth Worth, TX and Riverside-Bernardino, CA have seen their employment levels in the sector matching or surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

Wages for chefs…