Restaurant sales hit a record $1.55 trillion as operators add jobs

By Arklavo News Room · Published August 5, 2026, 9:11 a.m. ET

US restaurant and foodservice sales are on track to reach a record $1.55 trillion in 2026, and operators plan to add more than 100,000 jobs to keep pace with demand.

The figure comes from the National Restaurant Association's 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry report, which projects industry employment will rise to 15.8 million jobs across more than 1 million locations nationwide. For a business that touches nearly every town in the country, a year of hiring reaches well past the dining room.

Real sales are forecast to grow 1.3% after adjusting for menu prices, a modest gain that still marks a fresh high for total receipts. The report frames 2026 as a year of steady, hard-won demand rather than a boom, with operators counting on repeat traffic and careful pricing to hold the line.

The hiring plans matter beyond the kitchen. Restaurants and foodservice already rank among the largest private employers in the country, and the more than 100,000 roles operators expect to add this year land mostly in front-of-house and service positions that put staff face to face with guests in Arklavo's custom restaurant and café uniforms collection.

"Restaurants remain an economic powerhouse," said Michelle Korsmo, president and chief executive of the National Restaurant Association, pointing to the sector's role in driving job growth even under margin pressure.

What a bigger front of house means for branded apparel

Every new hire on the floor is someone a customer sees, and that visibility is where staffing and branding meet. A larger front-of-house team is, in practical terms, a larger apparel program: aprons, polos, caps, and service shirts that carry a restaurant's name and keep a growing roster looking like one crew, in line with how branded merchandise sales hit record $27.7 billion, driven by prices not orders.

That pattern shows up in day-to-day orders. Across recent hospitality work at Arklavo, the pieces restaurants and cafes reach for most are front-of-house aprons, embroidered polos, and caps, the items a guest reads at the counter before a menu is ever handed over. As teams grow, those reorders tend to grow with them.

Arklavo, a US custom-apparel company that decorates in-house through embroidery, direct-to-garment printing, and heat press, serves hospitality alongside corporate, healthcare, and school customers who can custom hospitality retail uniforms, with no order minimums for an operator adding one apron or a hundred.

For restaurant operators, the 2026 outlook reads as a staffing story as much as a sales one. More guests through the door means more hands on the floor, and every one of those hands is a chance to put the brand in front of a customer. Operators sizing up that need can request a quote on apparel built for restaurants, cafes, and bakeries.