Chefs, cooks and food preparation workers held more than 2.8 million jobs in 2000. Almost 60 percent of all chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers were employed in restaurants and other retail eating and drinking places. About 20 percent worked in institutions such as schools, universities, hospitals, and nursing homes. Grocery stores, hotels, and other organizations employed the remainder.
Job openings for chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers are expected to be plentiful through 2010. While job growth will create new positions, the overwhelming majority of job openings will stem from the need to replace workers who leave this large occupational group. Minimal educational and training requirements, combined with a large number of part-time positions, make employment as chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers attractive to people seeking a short-term source of income and a flexible schedule. In coming years, these workers will continue to transfer to other occupations or stop working to assume household responsibilities or to attend school full time, creating numerous openings for those entering the field.
Job openings stemming from replacement needs will be supplemented by new openings resulting from employment growth, as overall employment of chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers is expected to increase about as fast as the average for all occupations over the 2000-10 period. Employment growth will be spurred by increases in population, household income, and leisure time that will allow people to dine out and take vacations more often. In addition, growth in the number of two-income households will lead more families to opt for the convenience of dining out.
Projected employment growth, however, varies by specialty. Increases in the number of families and the more affluent, 55-and-older population will lead to more restaurants that offer table service and more varied menus, resulting in faster-than-average growth among higher-skilled restaurant cooks. As more Americans choose more full-service restaurants, employment of fast-food cooks is expected to decline and employment of short-order cooks, most of whom work in fast-food restaurants, is expected to grow more slowly than average. Duties of cooks in fast-food restaurants are limited; most workers are likely to be combined food preparation and serving workers, rather than fast-food cooks. In addition, fast-food restaurants increasingly offer healthier prepared foods, further reducing the need for cooks.
Employment of institution and cafeteria chefs and cooks also will grow more slowly than the average for all occupations. Their employment will not keep pace with the rapid growth in the educational and health services industries where their employment is concentrated. In an effort to make "institutional food" more attractive to students, staff, visitors, and patients, high schools and hospitals increasingly contract out their food services. Many of the contracted food service companies emphasize simple menu items and employ short-order cooks, instead of institution and cafeteria cooks, reducing the demand for these workers.
