16 days ago · Mondo Pizzaiolo Team · 4 min read
Ask ten pizzeria owners how hiring is going right now and you'll get contradictory answers, and the data backs that up. On one hand, restaurant job openings and hires both fell year-over-year through the middle of 2026, and separations (people quitting) have cooled off from their post-pandemic highs — the kind of numbers that usually mean a "buyer's market" for employers, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by Restaurant Dive. On the other hand, in Toast's spring 2026 survey of independent and small-chain restaurant operators, hiring jumped to the #2 business challenge at 22% of respondents — up six points from a year earlier, trailing only inflation.
Both things are true at once. There are fewer job openings floating around and less job-hopping than a couple of years ago, but the pool of people actually available and willing to work restaurant hours has also tightened — the Food Institute points to a slowdown in immigration as one factor shrinking that pipeline, on top of ongoing minimum-wage increases and rising costs squeezing margins. Net effect: a calmer market on paper, but not necessarily an easier one for the person actually trying to fill three line cook shifts by Friday.
Late summer into fall is when pizzeria staffing needs shift fast — football Sundays and Monday/Thursday nights ramp up delivery and takeout volume, students head back to school and free up (or eat into) part-time availability, and the run-up to the holiday catering and party season starts sooner than most owners plan for. If you're going to build out your roster for the next few months, now is the window, not November.
Pizza Today's advice for hiring key staff is worth taking seriously: figure out exactly which positions you need filled — how many full-time pizza makers, how many part-time counter staff, how many shift leads — before you start recruiting, rather than hiring reactively every time someone quits. As one operator put it, you wouldn't build a football team with eleven quarterbacks; a pizzeria lineup needs the same deliberate mix. A few things worth building before you post anything:
One segment worth a second look: workers 65 and older are now the fastest-growing part of the U.S. workforce, and industry data cited by Pizza Today's 2026 trends report shows why they're worth recruiting for daytime counter, prep, and host roles. Nearly a third of workers in this group have come back to work after retiring, and the satisfaction numbers are hard to argue with — over 90% report being satisfied with their jobs, the large majority feel engaged, and most report high loyalty and low burnout. For a pizzeria trying to cover slower weekday lunch shifts or fill gaps left by student staff during the school year, that's a reliable, motivated pool that doesn't always show up in the usual hiring channels.
Labor typically runs 23–28% of a pizzeria's revenue, and average hourly wages were up nearly 4% this year — so every person who walks out the door and has to be replaced is an expensive mistake. Labor attorney Eric Kingsley's advice, cited by the Food Institute, is blunt: the focus should be on continuity, not just chasing wage competition. Toast's survey backs this up operationally — when operators were asked how they're responding to labor pressure, boosting retention strategies (49%) and optimizing shift scheduling (45%) both ranked ahead of simply throwing more money at the problem.
Where that shows up in practice: pay and benefits still matter most, but the benefits gaining real traction this year go beyond the standard PTO and free-meal package — think flexible scheduling, lifestyle spending accounts, and mental health support. None of these require a big chain's budget to offer in some form, and they're increasingly what separates a pizzeria that keeps its best people from one that's constantly retraining.
The market loosened up a little this year, but "easier" and "easy" aren't the same thing — the operators who plan their roster deliberately, look at hiring pools they've been ignoring, and invest in keeping the good hires they already have are the ones who'll come out of fall staffed and steady instead of scrambling in December.
If you're staffing up for the season, you can post an open role or browse pizzaiolo profiles to see who's available.
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