Morning Business Report: Hospitality has become the fastest growing employer

The leisure-and-hospitality industry is rebuilding its workforce after cutting back during the pandemic. The hospitality and healthcare industries combined to add 207,000 workers in January. This made up nearly half of that month’s private-sector gains.

Hiring remains strong among some of the country’s biggest companies. Chipotle Mexican Grill said in January that the restaurant chain plans to hire 15,000 workers in the U.S. alone. Meanwhile, Kroger is recruiting former employees.

Traditional cable tv providers saw a 5.8 million loss in subscribers in 2022, compared to a 4.7 million loss in 2021, according to Leichtman Research Group. Comcast and Charter saw the biggest drops in subscribers. They saw increases of over 2 million and 686,000 respectively.

In spite of a slight drop due to high interest rates, stocks rose Friday. This rise broke a four week losing streak.

As March Madness begins, restaurants make a mad dash to snag fans. Menu specials and deals are in the works to boost sales both on and off-premise during the NCAA tournament. Buffalo Wild Wings is offering deals and wall to wall tv’s while QDOBA and TGI Fridays are also having March Madness specials.

Pet food prices in America were up 15% year over year in January, according to recent data from the federal reserve bank of Minneapolis. Fox News polled Americans and a minority said they may have to give up their pet if they rise more. Still, some owners said they would do whatever it takes to keep their pets.