This post is part of the On the Margin blog.
Franchises keep adding a lot of jobs, and restaurants are leading the way.
According to the latest ADP National Franchise Report, franchised businesses added 52,500 jobs in October. That was the highest number in any single month since ADP, a human resources technology firm, and Moody’s Analytics started doing the report.
And most of those jobs came among franchise restaurants, which added 39,190 jobs in the month, or three out of every four franchise jobs added in the month.
The addition represented an astounding 0.9-percent overall growth in franchise restaurant employment during the month. Franchise restaurants employ 4.4 million people, more than half of the 8.7 million people employed in a job at a franchise business in the U.S.
Most of the rest of the growth came among auto parts dealers and Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and head of the ADP Research Institute, suggested that the sectors demonstrate increased consumer spending.
Still, the increase in the franchise restaurant business continues a pattern in the restaurant industry over the past two years.
Restaurants have been expanding and added jobs at a rate faster than the overall economy. Restaurants added 349,000 jobs over the past year through September, according to federal data, including 21,000 in September. Those numbers don’t include October numbers, but the ADP survey suggests that restaurant industry employment growth accelerated during the month.
Indeed, according to ADP, private sector businesses overall added 182,000 jobs in October — so nearly three out of 10 private sector jobs added during the month was at a franchise. And one out of five private sector jobs added during the month was at a franchise restaurant.
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