Restaurants an open door for diversity

The latest job market report from the Department of Labor offered somewhat encouraging news: Americans are returning from the sidelines and participating in the job market once again. Hiring in the food-service sector, which includes our nation’s restaurant industry, accounted for a large portion of these employment gains.

These robust employment conditions are particularly welcoming to Americans of all backgrounds, including Hispanics, African-Americans and Asian-Americans, where overall unemployment has either stayed the same or increased. For these individuals, restaurants offer a promising entry point for a job and a clear ladder of career opportunity and mobility.

As the face of the American workforce becomes increasingly more diverse, the National Restaurant Association has joined forces with the Multicultural Foodservice Hospitality Alliance to share resources with the industry and speak with a unified voice to highlight the impact restaurants have in creating opportunity for people of color. Together, our organizations will help join the economic benefits of diversity and inclusion to the food and hospitality industry by building bridges and delivering solutions to effectively engage multicultural employees, customers and communities.

As a multicultural face of the U.S. economy, restaurants provide more opportunity for people of diverse backgrounds than virtually any other industry.

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Today, more than one-third of all restaurant owners and one-third of restaurant managers are people of color. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of Hispanic-owned restaurant businesses jumped 51 percent. African-American-owned restaurants increased 49 percent. The number of Asian-American-owned restaurant businesses increased 18 percent between 2007 and 2012.

Eighty percent of today’s restaurant owners started in an entry-level position within the restaurant industry and 90 percent of restaurant managers started as hourly employees. Nowhere else can an employee receive training from front of house to back of house in customer service, multitasking and people management – all in a unique, fast-paced environment. Those that aspire for job advancement and success can quickly learn that an entry-level job is not a dead end, but an open door.

The restaurant industry continues to be a bright spot for Americans of all backgrounds and the partnership between our two organizations will help ensure that the doorway to opportunity and success is open to every American. •

Dawn Sweeney is president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association. Gerry Fernandez is president of the Multicultural Food and Hospitality Alliance.

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