Restaurant Megatrends 2019: Labor Crunch Determines In-Restaurant Changes

[caption id="attachment_321381" align="alignright" width="240"] Download your copy of Skift Megatrends 2019[/caption] We've just released our annual industry trends forecast, Skift Restaurant Megatrends 2019. You can read about each of the trends on Skift Table as well as download a copy of our magazine here. Earlier this year, the Cheesecake Factory experienced the worst stock decline within one day in nearly 20 years. In a dismal second-quarter earnings report, the restaurant chain revealed that it had missed revenue estimates by enough that it had to lower its profit guidance for the year. The top reason for the misses? Rising labor costs. A day before Cheesecake’s earnings were released, the U.S. Department of Labor had announced a significant post-recession milestone. Over the past year, American workers have logged the highest pay increase in the decade since September 2008, according to the the department’s employment cost index, which measures labor costs (including wages, salaries, and benefits) across the nation. That also means that labor costs are skyrocketing. The minimum wage rose in eighteen states across the U.S. throughout 2018, and is scheduled to rise again in over 20 states in 2019. In September 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded the nation’s unemployment rate at 3.7 percent, the lowest that it’s been in nearly 50 years. In other words, workers are both increasingly expensive to retain and in very high demand. This is great n