On Friday, the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that two-thirds of jobs lost in March came from hospitality — and more than half were food and beverage jobs. BLS also noted that the drop nearly wiped out all the gains in the restaurant business from the past two years. Formed just two weeks ago by chefs across the country, the Independent Restaurant Coalition has rapidly grown to represent 500,000 local restaurants and 11 million employees.
On Monday, April 6 at 12:30 p.m. ET prominent chefs and leaders of the Independent Restaurant Coalition’s “Save Restaurants” movement will host a national teleconference briefing to call on Congress to take urgent new actions to ensure independent restaurants and the 11 million people they employ are able to survive the Coronavirus pandemic. Chefs Tom Colicchio, Naomi Pomeroy, and Kwame Onwuachi — founding members of the Independent Restaurant Coalition — will detail how the recently passed stimulus legislation (CARES Act) fails to meet the unique needs of independent restaurants, which have been shuttered as a result of the crisis.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Show Dire Situation For Restaurants
The chefs will also lay out a set of critical policy actions that Congress must take now to ensure the nearly 500,000 independent restaurants that contribute close to $1 trillion to our economy are able to not only reopen but stay open through the year as the economy slowly recovers and the nation slowly returns to normal rates of socialization.
The Coalition’s call for action comes following reports that more than 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last several weeks, with more than 6.6 million filing just last week. The U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that two-thirds of jobs lost in March came from hospitality — and more than half were food and beverage jobs. BLS also noted that the drop nearly wiped out all the gains in the restaurant business from the past two years.
