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NRA: Restaurants serving opportunity for America’s youth

As summer winds down and students head back to school, the NRA is highlighting the restaurant industry’s role in providing job opportunities to millions of young people.

August 12, 2015

Restaurants are expected to add 522,000 jobs this summer season, according to the National Restaurant Association’s 17th Annual Eating and Drinking Place Summer Employment Forecast. The projected 2015 gain would represent the third consecutive year in which restaurants added at least 500,000 jobs during the summer season, according to a press release.

The restaurant industry is the largest employer of teens, providing job opportunities to 1.5 million people between the ages of 16 and 19; the U.S. youth unemployment rate stands at more than 20 percent, according to the NRA.

In an effort to cut that number, the National Restaurant Association has launched the "Where I Started" multi-media campaign, which includes a series of profiles, social media and digital content regarding the restaurant industry's role in providing employment for millions of young Americans. Campaign info is available at AmericaWorksHere.org/WhereIStarted.

"The restaurant industry trains America's workforce, providing jobs that are valuable and flexible, and offer critical work experience that set young people on a path of advancement," said National Restaurant Association President and CEO Dawn Sweeney. "The restaurant industry is proud to foster skills-building and support scholarship."

“Our industry has its own educational program — ProStart — that last year reached more than 118,000 students at 1,700 high schools across 50 states," she said. "ProStart teaches high school students skills that are useful for any industry, while also focusing on culinary techniques and restaurant management fundamentals."

The NRA also released the following facts:

• 1 in four restaurant employees are students. The industry provides employees with the flexibility that allows work to fit into their busy lives.
• 1 in three Americans’ first job is in a restaurant.
• And many young people who start in the restaurant industry also stay and advance in the restaurant industry, with 71 percent of employees age 18 to 24 securing a more lucrative job in the business after their first job.