Restaurants and Other Eating Places in New Jersey

Restaurants and Other Eating Places (NAICS 72251) in New Jersey reports 249,796 workers across 18,701 establishments, with $6.7B of aggregate annual payroll flowing through Census CBP 2023 filings. That represents 2.2% of national employment for this industry, a concentration ratio that tells you whether New Jersey is a primary labor market for this NAICS code or a smaller satellite. A share above 5% signals a meaningful regional cluster; below 1% usually means the state is not a structural fit for this industry at scale.

Wage benchmarking is where state-level data earns its keep. The average annual compensation for Restaurants and Other Eating Places employees in New Jersey is $26,709/yr, versus a national average of $24,280/yr. New Jersey pays above the national average for this industry, which usually reflects higher skill concentration, union density, or regional cost of living.

Profitability data is only available at the national level because the IRS Statistics of Income program does not publish state-level margin breakdowns. The national net profit margin for Restaurants and Other Eating Places is not reported, and while margins do vary by state, the direction of variance usually follows labor cost and establishment size, both shown above. For a complete picture, pair this state-industry view with the Restaurants and Other Eating Places national page (entity structure, SBA lending, sub-industries) and the New Jersey overview (top employers, payroll dispersion across industries).