Franchising drives recent growth in sales, employment

Any current conversation about the U.S. economy should feature franchises front and center.

The NPD Group recently reported that while visits to full-service restaurants declined 2 percent during 2014, visits to quick-service chains increased 1 percent. Additionally, while the number of independent restaurants fell 2 percent over the previous year, franchise restaurants were moving in the opposite direction, adding more locations across the country.

“Without the increase in fast casual chain units, we would be seeing greater declines in restaurant counts,” Greg Starzynski, director of product management at NPD Foodservice, said.

Franchise growth is also responsible for recent gains in U.S. employment.

Data from the latest ADP National franchise Report showed that during February, 29,000 private-sector franchise jobs were added in the U.S.

"Franchise job gains in February were up slightly from January and continued above the 12-month average," Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and head of the ADP Research Institute, stated. "Employment increased despite the fact that restaurant jobs were down by almost half from last month."

Recovery has been slow but steady since the country’s economic downturn in 2007, and these numbers show that growth in spending and jobs in the restaurant industry can largely be attributed to franchises.