{"schema_version": 1, "id": "peoria-il-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08", "product": "Labor Market Pulse", "metro": {"geography_id": 407, "label": "Peoria, IL MSA", "slug": "peoria-il-msa"}, "focus_area": {"key": "restaurant_industry", "slug": "restaurant-industry", "label": "Restaurant Industry"}, "period": "2026-08", "public_after": "2026-08-01", "frozen_at": "2026-10-09T16:30:33.404484+00:00", "headline": "Peoria server pay slides as hiring outpaces traffic statewide.", "headline_summary": "Peoria Server pay fell to $31,532 against a stable $34,915 national median, even as national restaurant payrolls posted their strongest monthly gain since January 2023.", "key_indicators": [{"label": "Peoria MSA unemployment rate", "value": "4.6%", "context": "Up from 4.0% a year earlier (April 2026)"}, {"label": "National restaurant job growth", "value": "+59,200 jobs", "context": "Largest monthly gain since Jan 2023"}, {"label": "Restaurant traffic weakness", "value": "49% of operators", "context": "Report lower traffic than a year earlier"}, {"label": "National restaurant quits", "value": "503,000", "context": "Down from 685,000, easing turnover costs"}], "takeaways": [{"headline": "Server pay is falling in Peoria while it holds firm nationally.", "body": "Advertised Server pay locally is $31,532, down moderately, versus a stable $34,915 national median. That divergence may reflect softer local traffic and reduced tip-hour opportunity rather than a genuine easing of front-of-house labor scarcity \u2014 a risk if demand rebounds faster than pay resets."}, {"headline": "Assistant Manager pay decline signals belt-tightening on middle management.", "body": "Assistant Restaurant Manager pay dropped significantly to $40,000 locally, tracking a moderate national decline. Operators appear to be compressing management layers or leaning on Shift Managers to absorb supervisory duties as a lower-cost alternative."}, {"headline": "Rising county unemployment hasn't loosened kitchen talent yet.", "body": "Line Cook pay held stable at $36,400, nearly matching the $36,702 national figure despite Peoria County unemployment rising to 5.1%. Back-of-house scarcity appears structural, tied to the shrinking teen and young-adult labor pool statewide, not simply cyclical slack."}, {"headline": "Illinois' tip-credit erosion is a Chicago story with statewide spillover.", "body": "Chicago's tipped cash wage rises to $13.94 under the One Fair Wage phase-in, while downstate Illinois remains at the $15.00 state minimum. Peoria operators should expect upward pressure on tipped-wage expectations as candidates compare postings across the state's fragmented wage map."}], "local_conditions": "Peoria MSA nonfarm payrolls held flat year-over-year in August after a volatile stretch through 2026, even as the metro unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in April, up from 4.0% a year earlier, signaling softening beneath a headline-stable jobs count. National restaurant hiring surged by 59,200 jobs in August \u2014 the industry's strongest month since January 2023 \u2014 but nearly half of operators nationally report softer traffic, a mismatch that appears to reflect operators staffing ahead of demand or backfilling chronic vacancies rather than expanding capacity.", "implications": "Flat metro payroll growth alongside rising county-level unemployment (Peoria County at 5.1%, up 0.5 points) suggests Peoria operators are gaining leverage in sourcing back-of-house talent even as front-of-house pay stays under pressure \u2014 advertised Server pay locally sits at $31,532, down moderately and now below the $34,915 national median. That gap, paired with national quit rates falling from 685,000 to 503,000, points toward a market where retention economics finally favor employers, but only if base pay stays defensible against Chicago's escalating tipped-wage floor reshaping statewide expectations. Consider reviewing front-of-house pay structures against the widening Peoria-vs-national Server gap before it becomes a retention liability once traffic recovers.", "looking_ahead": [{"category": "Worth watching", "body": "Peoria MSA unemployment has risen for consecutive months even as statewide jobless rates ease; watch whether September data confirms a genuine local softening or a temporary blip tied to seasonal restaurant staffing wind-down."}, {"category": "Emerging pressure point", "body": "Illinois' shrinking 16-19 labor force is tightening the entry-level pipeline just as fall shoulder-season scheduling begins. Expect continued upward pressure on Crew and entry-level Line Cook advertised pay if seasonal demand holds."}, {"category": "Potential inflection point", "body": "National restaurant hiring hit a three-year high in August despite weak traffic \u2014 a signal that could reverse quickly. Watch whether Peoria operators who added staff this summer begin trimming hours or headcount if traffic softness persists into Q4."}, {"category": "Expected", "body": "Chicago's tip-credit compression continues stepping down through 2026, and downstate markets like Peoria have historically followed Chicago wage-policy trends with a lag. Monitor whether local tipped cash-wage floors face renewed legislative attention heading into 2027 budget cycles."}], "roles": [{"role": "Assistant Restaurant Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 29497.0, "metro_p50": 40000.0, "metro_p75": 45760.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "significant", "national_p50": 39000.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Catering Manager", "data_scope": "state_rollup", "metro_p25": 40170.0, "metro_p50": 55546.0, "metro_p75": 60535.25, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 51585.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Crew", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 28232.5, "metro_p50": 31200.0, "metro_p75": 32500.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 29791.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Line Cook", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 33280.0, "metro_p50": 36400.0, "metro_p75": 37440.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 36702.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Restaurant Manager/General Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 52500.0, "metro_p50": 62500.0, "metro_p75": 71707.0, "metro_trend_direction": "stable", "metro_trend_magnitude": "stable", "national_p50": 59762.0, "national_trend_direction": "down", "national_trend_magnitude": "moderate"}, {"role": "Server", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 27577.0, "metro_p50": 31532.4, "metro_p75": 34666.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 34915.0, "national_trend_direction": "stable", "national_trend_magnitude": "stable"}, {"role": "Shift Manager", "data_scope": "metro", "metro_p25": 29806.0, "metro_p50": 34320.0, "metro_p75": 35880.0, "metro_trend_direction": "down", "metro_trend_magnitude": "moderate", "national_p50": 32649.0, "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": "September 2026", "files": {"html": "peoria-il-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "pdf": "peoria-il-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}, "published_at": "2026-10-09T16:35:22.881002+00:00", "report_html_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/peoria-il-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.html", "report_pdf_url": "https://reports.wagescape.com/archive/v1/editions/peoria-il-msa/restaurant-industry/2026-08.pdf"}