I suspect that a big factor at play is that a lot of ex-restaurant workers realized those jobs kind of suck. The pandemic made a lot of restaurants close and la

I suspect that a big factor at play is that a lot of ex-restaurant workers realized those jobs kind of suck. The pandemic made a lot of restaurants close and lay off staff without a foreseeable return date, pushing people to seek employment outside the sector. If enough such people decided not to try to come back when restaurants reopened, you'd see restaurants struggling to attract employees in a tight labor market and the resulting employees being, on average, less experienced / skilled.