---
title: "Nation’s Restaurant News: Staffing Struggles Hit Quick Service Restaurants"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/5c710845-29fa-4fcf-85c9-f9e5876e5a75
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-staffing-struggles-hit-quick-service-restaurants-5469
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
topics: ["Operations"]
published: 2016-08-11T15:10:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:36:06.295Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/94966305905bc91dd7bdd9cebe3e96038884160811100051.jpeg
---

# Nation’s Restaurant News: Staffing Struggles Hit Quick Service Restaurants

**TL;DR:** Quick-service restaurants experienced increased staffing challenges in the third quarter, with higher turnover rates and younger, more transient employees. The People Report Workforce Index found that these restaurants are struggling to staff due to higher turnover rates and the nature of their workforce.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2016-08-11. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-staffing-struggles-hit-quick-service-restaurants-5469).*

## Story

Quick-service restaurants continued to experience increased challenges in staffing in the third quarter as other segments reported staffing pressures leveling off, the latest People Report Workforce Index found.

“We’ve really seen pressure on the kind of the end of the scale with the lower check averages, such as quick service and fast casual,” said Michael Harms, executive director of operations at Dallas-based People Report, told NRN on Monday.

“They seem to be really struggling to staff,” Harms added. "Granted, they do have higher turnover rates. They often hire those who are younger and more transient in their career paths.”

The People Report Workforce Index measures expected market pressure on restaurant employment, and is based on surveys of restaurant industry human resources departments and recruiters.

The Workforce Index, which started in 2006, and is now a division of analytics company TDn2K, has a baseline value of 50, with results above that level indicating increased pressure on five components: employment levels, recruiting difficulty, vacancies, employment expectations and turnover. Results are based on expectations for the quarter underway.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- Nation's Restaurant News (publication)
- quick service restaurants (topic)
- staffing challenges (topic)
- turnover rates (topic)
- workforce index (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-staffing-struggles-hit-quick-service-restaurants-5469). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/5c710845-29fa-4fcf-85c9-f9e5876e5a75).