PROVIDENCE – The National Restaurant Association predicts Rhode Island restaurants and bars will hire 4,800 seasonal workers this summer, up slightly from the 4,600 they hired last year.
The trade group said the additional hires would boost the state’s dining and drinking work force 13.2 percent compared with March, bringing the total number of workers in the sector to 41,300 during the summer months.
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Although state restaurants’ expected number of summer hires is projected to increase by 200 this year, total employment in the industry during the summer is expected to be down by 100 year-over-year because fewer people were employed in the sector in March, according to Maureen Ryan, a spokeswoman for the restaurant association.
Rhode Island is among the states with the biggest seasonal increases in restaurant and bar employment during the summer. Only Maine (29.2 percent), Alaska (25.1 percent), Delaware (15.1 percent) and New Hampshire (14.1 percent) have larger percentage gains. In Massachusetts, employment is projected to grow 11.5 percent to 228,500 from March levels.
Nationwide, the National Restaurant Association is forecasting the nation’s restaurants and bars will add 381,800 jobs this summer, up 4.1 percent from March. The organization defines summer employment as “the average number of eating and drinking place jobs in June, July and August.”
There were 2,663 eating and drinking establishments in Rhode Island in 2007, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to the association.
