Restaurant Jobs Declining

Now it's even harder to get what some people consider the standard "fall back" job of working at a restaurant. The number of restaurants in the United States has been steadily declining over the past few years, leaving the best food service jobs for those with the most experience -- the workers who see them as a profession, rather than a fill-in position until something in their chosen field comes along.

Chicago-based research firm The NPD Group recently released numbers that showed the U.S. restaurant industry contracted this past fall, with the total number of commercial food service locations falling by about 1 percent, down 5,551 outlets to 579,102 locations. As a comparison, the number of restaurants declined about 0.3 percent in 2009.