{"schema_version": 1, "id": "akron-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 79, "label": "Akron, OH MSA", "slug": "akron-oh-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-09", "public_after": "2026-09-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T13:31:26.774505+00:00", "headline": "Akron server pay climbs while labor pool keeps shrinking.", "headline_summary": "Metro server pay rose to a $34,283 median even as Akron's labor force contracts faster than its 3.6% unemployment rate suggests, with Ohio's tipped minimum wage set to rise again to $5.70 in January.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Akron metro unemployment", "value": "3.6%", "context": "vs. 4.1% national, down from 4.1% in March 2026"}, {"label": "Akron monthly job change, 2026 avg", "value": "-92 jobs", "context": "vs. 5-yr metro average of +317 jobs/month"}, {"label": "Ohio food service employment", "value": "-3.1K YoY", "context": "State-level decline despite national modest gains"}, {"label": "National food-service job openings", "value": "673,000", "context": "Down from 916,000 in January 2026"}, {"label": "Ohio 2027 tipped minimum wage", "value": "$5.70/hr", "context": "Up 3.5% from $5.50 in 2026, effective Jan 1"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Server pay is moving up while every other role holds flat.", "body": "Metro server pay rose significantly to a $34,283 median, close to the $35,012 national figure, while Line Cook, Crew, and Shift Manager pay stayed stable. That divergence suggests tipped-role competition is tightening even as overall advertised pay growth in the metro remains muted \u2014 a signal to revisit tip-credit assumptions against Ohio's 2027 tipped wage floor of $5.70."}, {"headline": "Fewer open restaurant jobs nationally doesn't mean easier Akron hiring.", "body": "National accommodation and food services openings dropped from 916,000 to 673,000 between January and July, but Akron's labor force is shrinking faster than its unemployment rate implies. Operators competing for a smaller local pool may not feel the national loosening at all."}, {"headline": "Ohio's 2027 wage step is a known cost \u2014 budget it, don't react to it.", "body": "The 3.5% increase to $11.40 non-tipped and $5.70 tipped, confirmed in late September, gives operators a full quarter to model labor cost as a share of revenue before it lands. Early scenario planning avoids the scramble that typically follows a January reset."}, {"headline": "Manager pay sits below national levels, but stability may be the real story.", "body": "Both Restaurant Manager/GM ($57,300 vs. $59,618 national) and Assistant Manager ($37,440 vs. $39,000) pay trail national medians while national figures trend down moderately. Stable local manager pay against a softening national market may indicate Akron operators are holding management compensation steady rather than cutting, a retention lever worth testing against peer-metro movement."}], "local_conditions": "Akron's 3.6% metro unemployment rate masks genuine softness: the area has shed jobs at a -0.65% annualized pace in 2026, averaging 92 monthly losses against a five-year trend of +317, even as Ohio's minimum wage floor rises again in 2027 to $11.40 for non-tipped and $5.70 for tipped workers. National food-service job openings fell from 916,000 to 673,000 between January and July, and Ohio's food services/drinking places employment is down 3.1K year-over-year, suggesting Akron operators face a candidate pool shrinking in parallel with demand rather than loosening in the operator's favor.", "implications": "Falling job openings nationally and in Ohio point to less competitive pressure on entry-level hiring, but Akron's structural job losses and shrinking labor force mean fewer net new candidates are entering the market to replace even modest turnover \u2014 a dynamic that rewards retention investment over reactive recruiting. Ohio's confirmed 2027 wage floor increase to $11.40/$5.70 gives operators a fixed, bookable 3.5% labor-cost input for Q1 budgeting, and the compounding effect on wage compression between tipped and back-of-house roles warrants scenario planning now rather than after the January reset. Consider reviewing scheduling and cross-training practices ahead of the 2027 wage step to protect margin without triggering FOH/BOH pay compression.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Expected", "body": "Ohio's 2027 minimum wage increase to $11.40/$5.70 takes effect January 1 \u2014 operators should finalize labor-cost modeling and menu-pricing decisions before Q4 budget cycles close."}, {"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Akron's continued monthly job losses (-92/month average) against a shrinking labor force could tighten BOH recruiting further even as national food-service openings decline, creating a local-national disconnect operators should track directly rather than assume follows national trends."}, {"category": "Early indicator", "body": "Server pay's significant year-over-year rise in Akron, against flat national server pay, may signal early tipped-role wage pressure tied to Ohio's accelerating tipped minimum \u2014 worth monitoring whether Line Cook and Crew pay begin to follow."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National restaurant hiring is stabilizing with openings down 27% since January, which could ease seasonal fall hiring pressure \u2014 but Akron's weaker job growth trend suggests local operators may not see equivalent relief in candidate volume."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 31200.0, "metro_p50": 37440.0, "metro_p75": 42668.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 39000.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Catering Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 36156.0, "metro_p50": 45760.0, "metro_p75": 54080.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 50960.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Crew", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 25010.0, "metro_p50": 29120.0, "metro_p75": 30403.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 29839.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 30088.25, "metro_p50": 34580.0, "metro_p75": 37440.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 36826.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 50000.0, "metro_p50": 57300.0, "metro_p75": 69148.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 59618.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 27124.0, "metro_p50": 34283.0, "metro_p75": 35974.0, "metro_trend_direction": "up", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 35012.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 29068.0, "metro_p50": 31764.4, "metro_p75": 33463.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 32731.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}], "industry_snapshot": [], "citations": [], "methodology": "Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay.", "edition_label": "October 2026", "files": {"html": "akron-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.html", "pdf": "akron-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T13:47:44.625152+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/akron-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/akron-oh-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-09.pdf"}