The workforce that carried restaurants through the summer is about to change faster than demand does.

Students go back to school. Second jobs get renegotiated around new class schedules. Seasonal hires move on to whatever comes next.

And demand does not simply disappear after Labor Day. It changes shape.

That matters because summer was strong. A new National Restaurant Association survey found that 98% of travelers planned to dine at least once at a restaurant during their trip this summer. Dining out topped shopping and even going to the beach on the list of vacation activities.

Convenience and affordability drove much of that demand. 90% said location and price mattered most. 70% looked for specials. Even the World Cup contributed, with a third of adults saying they'd watch a match at a restaurant hosting a viewing party.

Summer travel, holiday weekends, a global sporting event. A lot of that season ran on a workforce that is now shifting under operators' feet.
The operators who feel that shift the least won't simply be the ones who staffed August well. They'll be the ones building September around the workforce they'll actually have, not the one they had last month.

https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/research-reports/summer-dining-travel-trends-restaurant-report/