The U.S. restaurant industry is expected to post modest financial growth in 2017, with total sales reaching nearly $799 billion, a 4.3-percent gain over the industry’s estimated sales of $766 billion in 2016, according to estimates from the National Restaurant Association (NRA).
Although this will represent the eighth consecutive year of real growth in restaurant sales, the rate of growth remains moderate. Significant variances among geographic regions and industry segments will also affect restaurant sales performance. NRA is projecting that the restaurant industry’s workforce will increase slightly to 14.7 million in 2017, remaining the nation’s second-largest private sector employer, providing about one in 10 working Americans.
NRA said a gradually improving economy will help overall sales climb by 4.3 percent from 2016 levels. When adjusted for inflation, the 2017 estimate will represent a 1.7-percent gain over last year, which is up slightly from the adjusted 1.5-percent increase between 2016 and 2015, NRA reported.
Food-and beverage sales in the tableservice-restaurant segment are projected to reach $263.o billion in 2017, up 3.5 percent from 2016. Quickservice and fast-casual sales are expected to total $233.7 billion in 2017, a 5.3 percent gain over 2016’s sales volume
The National Restaurant Association’s comprehensive, annual outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry, covering national and state-by-state sales and employment forecasts, as well as workforce, segment, consumer, technology and menu trends will be available soon. Meanwhile, visit: http://www.restaurant.org/Downloads/PDFs/News-Research/2017_Restaurant_outlook_summary-FINAL.pdf
