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8 Cafe Staffing Statistics Every Owner Should Know Before Building a Schedule in 2026

Labor data can look more precise than it is. A national occupation estimate is not cafe employment, QCEW average pay is not a cafe wage budget, and Census payroll is not labor cost per transaction. The useful question is which population each source measures and what an owner can safely learn from it.

We read the original Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics sources and extracted the most useful information for cafe owners. The figures below separate the cafe business category from the broader food-service workforce, distinguish occupation wages from industry payroll, and end with local metrics that connect staffing to transactions, sales, and queue performance without inventing a national staffing ratio.

Back to Cafe statistics

1. NAICS 722515 covers 85,140 employer establishments, not coffee-only cafes

The Census Bureau's 2023 County Business Patterns data count 85,140 employer establishments in NAICS 722515, Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars. The category includes coffee shops with on-premise brewing, beverage bars, doughnut shops, bagel shops, pretzel shops, cookie shops, ice cream parlors, and juice bars. Mobile vehicles serving snacks or nonalcoholic beverages are classified separately in Mobile Food Services.

This is an establishment count for businesses with paid employees, not a count of coffee-only cafes or a staffing recommendation. It does not tell an owner how many employees work at each location, how many people are scheduled at peak, or how much labor is needed for a transaction. Keep the category name beside the number whenever it is quoted so the figure is not presented as the size of the cafe workforce.

2. Employer businesses reported 946,073 employees and $17.4 billion in payroll in 2023

The Census Bureau's 2023 Annual Integrated Economic Survey reports 946,073 employees and $17,406,043,000 in annual payroll for employer businesses in NAICS 722515. Rounded for readability, the payroll figure is $17.4 billion. These measures describe the labor footprint of the broader snack and nonalcoholic beverage bar category, which includes more than coffee shops.

The AIES universe covers domestic, private-sector, nonfarm employer businesses in operation for at least part of 2023 in the 50 states and the District of Columbia that had paid employees. A business operated only by its owner without paid employees is outside this employer universe. Annual payroll is also not the same as loaded labor cost, profit, or an hourly wage for a cafe employee, so it should not be divided into a local schedule without matching definitions.

3. QCEW recorded 83,817 private establishments and $24,105 average annual pay in 2024

The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages 2024 annual-average row for private NAICS 722515 reports 83,817 establishments, 945,076 average annual employees, $22,781,382,992 in total annual wages, a $464 average weekly wage, and $24,105 average annual pay. This is a second view of the same broad business category, based on employer reports to state workforce agencies.

QCEW measures employment and wages covered by state Unemployment Insurance and the federal UCFE program, so it is not a complete count of self-employed owners or every type of worker. Its 2024 annual-average employment and wage measures also use different coverage and timing from the 2023 AIES figures. The $24,105 value is an industry average for covered employment, not owner income, a legal wage floor, or a recommended cafe pay rate.

4. The broad food-service serving workforce had 5,030,600 jobs and 1,159,600 annual openings

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 5,030,600 jobs in the broad Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers occupation in 2024. BLS projects 5% employment growth from 2024 to 2034, an increase of 268,000 jobs to about 5,298,600, and about 1,159,600 openings per year on average. The occupation covers workers who take and prepare orders, clear tables, and perform other food and drink service tasks.

This is a cross-industry workforce measure. BLS says these workers are employed in restaurants, schools, and other dining places, and that many openings are expected to come from replacing workers who transfer occupations or leave the labor force. The 1,159,600 openings figure is therefore useful context for recruiting pressure, not the number of cafe positions that will be created or the number of staff a single cafe should schedule.

5. BLS puts broad serving wages at $14.92 per hour, with counter and host roles at $14.65 and $14.61

For May 2024, BLS reports a $14.92 median hourly wage for Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers, SOC 35-3000. The same national OEWS release reports median hourly wages of $14.65 for Fast Food and Counter Workers, SOC 35-3023, and $14.61 for Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop, SOC 35-9031. These occupation codes are useful comparison points for customer-facing cafe work, but they are not a cafe-only wage series.

The OEWS figures are occupation wages across covered employers and industries, not the amount a particular cafe must pay. BLS defines its wage measure as straight-time gross pay and includes tips, while excluding overtime, severance pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, employer benefits, and tuition reimbursements. Compare the occupation, geography, date, tip treatment, and employment status before using a wage figure in a hiring plan.

6. Food preparation workers had a $16.45 median wage but a projected 3% employment decline

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports a $16.45 median hourly wage for Food Preparation Workers in May 2024, with 902,700 jobs in 2024. BLS projects employment to decline 3% from 2024 to 2034, a reduction of 30,900 jobs, while still projecting about 148,000 openings per year on average. The occupation includes work such as slicing meat and brewing coffee, as well as food preparation in cafeterias, grocery stores, hospitals, and schools.

The combination of declining projected employment and many annual openings is a replacement story, not a contradiction. Employers can still face frequent hiring needs even when the occupation is not growing. For a cafe, the statistic helps distinguish prep work from customer-facing service work, but it does not reveal how many prep hours are needed for a particular menu or how quickly a local labor market can fill those shifts.

7. Official labor data do not provide a cafe staffing ratio, turnover rate, or service-speed benchmark

The sources answer different questions: Census counts employer establishments and reports employer employment and payroll, QCEW measures covered payroll employment and wages, and OEWS measures occupations across industries. None of these programs measures the number of scheduled employees per cafe, labor hours per transaction, employee turnover at a cafe, queue time, or service speed.

It would therefore be misleading to divide 946,073 employees by 85,140 establishments and call the result an average cafe staffing level. The two figures use different survey programs and the establishment category includes businesses with different formats, opening hours, menus, and labor models. A reliable staffing benchmark needs store-level observations that match the local period, customer volume, channel mix, and definition of labor hours.

8. Four local labor metrics show whether a schedule supports sales and service

Labor hours per transaction equal attended labor hours divided by completed transactions. Sales per labor hour equal net sales divided by attended labor hours. Peak queue time is the median or 90th-percentile time from entering the queue to order handoff during the busiest intervals. Scheduled versus attended hours compares clocked hours with scheduled hours, making understaffing, absence, and overstaffing visible. Keep owner hours separate from employee hours if the goal is to compare payroll productivity.

Measure one weekday peak, one weekend peak, and one quiet period before changing the schedule. At 15-minute intervals, record the people working by role, scheduled and clocked hours, completed transactions by channel, net sales, queue entry and handoff times, and any service interruption. These local metrics can show whether an extra person improves throughput or customer experience, but they should remain local operating measures rather than being presented as national cafe statistics.

Source Code Measure Value Year or quarter Geography Employee coverage Owner coverage Limitation
Census County Business Patterns NAICS 722515 Employer establishments 85,140 2023 United States Businesses with paid employees Owner-only nonemployers excluded Broader than coffee-only cafes; location count, not staffing level
Census AIES NAICS 722515 Employees and annual payroll 946,073; $17.406 billion 2023 United States Private nonfarm employer businesses with paid employees Businesses without paid employees excluded Broad category; payroll is not labor cost per sale
BLS QCEW NAICS 722515, private ownership Establishments, average annual employment, average annual pay 83,817; 945,076; $24,105 2024 annual average United States UI and UCFE covered payroll employment Self-employed and other excluded workers are outside coverage Different program and reference year from AIES
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook SOC 35-3000 Jobs, outlook, annual openings, median wage 5,030,600; 5%; 1,159,600; $14.92 per hour 2024 base; 2024 to 2034 projection; May 2024 wage United States Wage and salary jobs across industries Self-employed excluded Broad food-service occupation, not cafe employment
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook SOC 35-2021 Jobs, outlook, annual openings, median wage 902,700; -3%; 148,000; $16.45 per hour 2024 base; 2024 to 2034 projection; May 2024 wage United States Wage and salary jobs across industries Self-employed excluded Food preparation includes many non-cafe settings
BLS OEWS national release SOC 35-3023 and 35-9031 Median hourly wages for counter and host roles $14.65; $14.61 May 2024 United States Wage and salary employment in covered establishments Self-employed and owners excluded Occupational comparison, not a cafe payroll benchmark

Sources