Culinary arts connect a large U.S. workforce with restaurants, institutions, households, hotels, and the wider food economy. In 2025, cooks held about 2.7 million jobs, while 2024 food spending reached $2.58 trillion. These figures describe a broad field: culinary work includes entry-level preparation, specialized cooking, kitchen leadership, and related management pathways.
Contents
- How large is the U.S. culinary workforce?
- What do cooks earn by role and industry?
- What do chef and head-cook careers look like?
- How fast are culinary occupations projected to grow?
- What are the outcomes for culinary-services degree holders?
- What are the measured requirements and conditions of culinary work?
- How large is the food-spending market?
How large is the U.S. culinary workforce?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported about 2.7 million cook jobs in 2025. Restaurant cooks made up the largest named group, with 1,417,500 jobs. Fast-food cooks accounted for 640,500 jobs, and institution and cafeteria cooks accounted for 454,000. Short-order cooks held 138,700 jobs, while private-household cooks held 35,400. These categories show how culinary work extends beyond independent restaurants into schools, healthcare settings, and private homes. BLS, Cooks: Occupational Outlook Handbook
Food services and drinking places employed 76% of cooks in 2025. Healthcare and social assistance employed 7%, educational services employed 5%, and traveler accommodation employed 3%. The percentages identify the principal industry settings in the BLS profile; they are not a complete list of every sector employing cooks. BLS, Cooks: Occupational Outlook Handbook
What do cooks earn by role and industry?
In May 2025, the median hourly wage for cooks was $17.62. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $12.85 per hour, while the highest-paid 10% earned more than $22.84 per hour. A median describes the midpoint of the reported wage distribution; it does not represent every cook’s pay or include an assumption about tips, overtime, or annual hours. BLS, Cooks: Occupational Outlook Handbook
The setting made a measurable difference in median hourly pay. Private-household cooks had a median of $23.05 per hour, compared with $18.01 for institution and cafeteria cooks and $17.98 for restaurant cooks. Cooks in traveler accommodation had a median of $21.35, while those in healthcare and social assistance had a median of $18.35. Educational-services cooks had a median of $17.22, and fast-food cooks had a median of $14.85.
| Cook setting or wage point | Median or reported hourly wage |
|---|---|
| Private-household cooks | $23.05 |
| Traveler accommodation | $21.35 |
| Healthcare and social assistance | $18.35 |
| Institution and cafeteria cooks | $18.01 |
| Restaurant cooks | $17.98 |
| Educational services | $17.22 |
| Fast-food cooks | $14.85 |
| All cooks median | $17.62 |
All wage figures in this section are U.S. medians or percentiles measured in May 2025. They should be read as occupation and industry benchmarks, not as guaranteed starting or long-term earnings. BLS, Cooks: Occupational Outlook Handbook
What do chef and head-cook careers look like?
Chef and head-cook roles sit farther along the kitchen career ladder than the broad cook category. In 2024, chefs and head cooks held 197,300 jobs, and their median annual pay was $60,990, equivalent to $29.32 per hour in the BLS profile. Chefs and head cooks typically needed five years or more of related work experience in 2024. BLS, Chefs and Head Cooks: Occupational Outlook Handbook
Pay also varied by industry in May 2024. Chefs and head cooks in traveler accommodation had median annual pay of $73,110. The median was $69,430 in amusement, gambling, and recreation industries and $59,450 in food services and drinking places. Those industry medians are measured for 2024 and should not be combined with the May 2025 cook wage figures as though they came from the same occupation group or reference date. BLS, Chefs and Head Cooks: Occupational Outlook Handbook
The BLS projected chef and head-cook employment to grow 7% from 2024 to 2034, an increase of 14,000 jobs. About 24,400 openings were projected each year over that period. Annual openings include positions created by employment growth as well as openings associated with workers leaving or changing occupations, so the yearly opening figure is not the same as the net increase. BLS, Chefs and Head Cooks: Occupational Outlook Handbook
How fast are culinary occupations projected to grow?
The available projections cover several overlapping levels of the culinary labor market. For cooks specifically, employment was projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 393,200 openings each year. For the broader cooks-and-food-preparation-workers group, employment was projected to rise from 3.6144 million jobs in 2024 to 3.7703 million in 2034. That is a projected addition of 156,000 jobs, alongside about 528,900 annual openings.
At the widest level, food preparation and serving related occupations were projected to grow from 13.8265 million jobs in 2024 to 14.4291 million in 2034. About 2.4291 million annual openings were projected across that occupational group. The following figures are separate BLS projection scopes and periods, so they are best used to show the size of the labor market rather than added together.
| Occupational scope | Projection period | Employment measure | Annual openings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooks | 2025–2035 | 7% growth | 393,200 |
| Cooks and food preparation workers | 2024–2034 | 3.6144 million to 3.7703 million jobs | 528,900 |
| Food preparation and serving related occupations | 2024–2034 | 13.8265 million to 14.4291 million jobs | 2.4291 million |
These are forecasts, not observed employment outcomes. The source presents them as occupational projections for the stated periods. BLS, Occupational projections and worker characteristics
What are the outcomes for culinary-services degree holders?
In 2023, workers with a personal and culinary services degree had median annual wages of $45,000, and 61,340 employed workers held that degree. Fourteen percent worked part time. Twenty-four percent worked in occupations requiring at least a bachelor’s degree, while 11% held an advanced degree. These statistics describe degree holders as a group; they do not mean that every person with the degree works in a kitchen or follows the same career path. BLS, Field of degree: Personal and culinary services
Food preparation and serving related occupations employed 25% of personal and culinary services degree holders. Management occupations employed 15%. Within the occupation-specific figures reported for the degree field, chefs and head cooks represented 16% of degree holders in that occupation, while restaurant cooks represented 5%. The source’s wording distinguishes the broad destination shares from the occupation-specific representation measures; they should not be treated as one combined distribution.
The degree data therefore point to more than one route through culinary work. Some degree holders were in food preparation and serving, some moved into management, and some worked in occupations with bachelor’s-degree requirements. The reported $45,000 median annual wage applies to the 2023 degree-holder population, not specifically to chefs, restaurant cooks, or any single industry. BLS, Field of degree: Personal and culinary services
What are the measured requirements and conditions of culinary work?
In 2025, prior work experience was required for 22.7% of food preparation and serving related workers, while on-the-job training was required for 95.6%. No minimum education was required for 81.6%. Together, these measures describe a field where employer-provided training is widespread and formal minimum education requirements are uncommon, while prior experience still matters for a substantial minority of roles. BLS, Food preparation and serving related workers
The work environment measures show substantial physical and communication demands. Moderate noise exposure was present for 96.7% of workers, and loud noise exposure was present for 2.6%. Speaking was required for 96.4%. Low-posture work was required for 76.1%, and workers spent an average of 97.2% of the workday standing.
These are measured characteristics of the broad food preparation and serving related group, not a claim that every restaurant, home kitchen, or chef role has identical conditions. The figures also describe exposure or requirements in the reference occupation group; they do not measure job satisfaction, injury rates, or an individual worker’s daily experience. BLS, Food preparation and serving related workers
How large is the food-spending market?
The food economy surrounding culinary work is much larger than the payroll of cooks and chefs alone. U.S. consumers spent $2.58 trillion on food in 2024, up 4.0% from 2023. Spending on domestically produced food was $2.17 trillion, up 3.0%. Domestic farm establishments received $256.7 billion from food-system commodity sales. USDA Economic Research Service, Food Dollar – Summary Findings
Food-away-from-home spending reached $1.27 trillion in 2024, up 4.2% from 2023. Food-at-home spending reached $901 billion, up 1.4%. The USDA reported an all-food farm share of 11.8 cents per food dollar in 2024. A farm share describes the portion attributed to farm production within the food dollar framework; it is not the same as restaurant labor, operating costs, or a cook’s wages. USDA Economic Research Service, Food Dollar – Summary Findings
Another USDA series reported inflation-adjusted food-away-from-home spending of $1.41 trillion in 2025. Consumers spent 4.9% of disposable personal income on food away from home that year. Because the 2025 figure is inflation-adjusted and the 2024 figures above are reported as spending totals in their respective USDA series, the values should not be compared without keeping those measurement definitions in view. USDA Economic Research Service, Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending
For food away from home in 2024, the farm share was 7.1 cents per dollar, while the marketing share was 92.9 cents per dollar. In this measure, the marketing share covers the portion after the farm share within the food-away-from-home dollar. It helps show why culinary businesses operate inside a broad chain that includes preparation, service, distribution, and other marketing activities. USDA Economic Research Service, Farms receive larger share of spending on food at home than food away from home