Foodservice added 250K jobs in the first 3 months of 2022

Employment in the sector still lags behind February 2020 levels by about 820,000 jobs, but this is the smallest gap to date between pre-pandemic and current job levels.

Restaurants and foodservice businesses added 61,000 jobs in March 2022, marking the 15th consecutive month of job growth in the sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But sectoral employment lags about 819,000 jobs behind February 2020, the closest the sector has come to close the gap between pre-pandemic employment and current job levels.

Drone Delivery Begins

Brinker International has expanded its partnership with drone delivery company Flytrex, which now offers its service in Granbury, Texas, outside of Dallas-Fort Worth via press release.

Drones will offer five-minute delivery of Brinker's brands, including two virtual brands It's Just Wings and Maggianno's Italian Classics.

The expansion into Texas follows Flytrex's domestic debut in North Carolina in September 2020. Since then, the drone company has expanded into two additional North Carolina markets, including a delivery station in Holly Springs Towne Center, where the company delivers from Brinker’s It’s Just Wings brand.

Robot Invasion - Four Companies to watch

Starship Technologies offers autonomous robots for stores, restaurants, and campuses. Starship robots can carry items within a 4-mile radius. Starship’s robots weigh no more than 100 pounds, move at pedestrian speed, and navigate around objects and people.

Nuro produces custom autonomous delivery vehicles for neighborhoods. Its main vehicle, the R2, features 360° cameras, Lidar, short and long-range radar, and ultrasonic sensors. Nuro has formed several partnerships in Houston: Domino’s for pizza deliveries, CVS for prescription deliveries, and Walmart for grocery deliveries.

Postmates is a food delivery app and service owned by Uber. Its Serve robot is designed for safe, autonomous navigation on urban sidewalks. Serve navigates using Lidar and communicates with customers through an interactive touchscreen.

Amazon Scout is an electric delivery system designed to get packages to customers safely using autonomous delivery devices. Scout bots are the size of a small cooler and roll along sidewalks at a walking pace. Scout initially launched testing to a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington. The autonomous delivery system has since expanded to Atlanta, Georgia, and Franklin, Tennessee.