For the first time since the data has been recorded, sales at restaurants and bars in the United States have eclipsed those of grocery stores. The recent jump in discretionary spending in this space has pushed wages in the restaurant and bar service industry higher recently as the labor market has tightened and demand has increased. We hear a lot from the media about the ‘everyman’ struggling because wages are not increasing and pennies must be pinched- but this, along with other economic insights we have shared in the past, show a different story. It appears the economy is chugging along just fine.
March 9, 2015