Food truck employment statistics show a national mobile-food-services industry with 38,438 employees and 12,487 employer establishments in 2023. The figures cover NAICS 722330, which includes meals and snacks prepared for immediate consumption from motorized vehicles or nonmotorized carts. Because the Census Bureau measures the establishment at its central location, these statistics describe the business location rather than counting every truck or cart separately.
Contents
- National employment and business footprint
- Employment by establishment size
- States with the most mobile-food-service jobs
- Employer establishments by state
- Payroll by leading state
- Wage benchmarks for food-truck staffing
National employment and business footprint
The County Business Patterns: 2023 U.S. File reported 38,438 mobile-food-service employees during the week of March 12, 2023. It also counted 12,487 employer establishments for the year. These are the most direct national measures in the supplied industry data, but they should be read with the Census definition in mind: an establishment is the central business location, not an individual vehicle or cart.
The industry reported $196,912 thousand in first-quarter payroll in 2023 and $996,319 thousand in annual payroll. The payroll figures are reported in thousands of dollars. They describe the payroll recorded for the industry, while the employment count is measured during the specific week of March 12, so the two measures do not represent identical time windows.
The national picture is therefore a large number of relatively small operating units alongside a smaller group of establishments with larger teams. The establishment-size distribution makes that pattern clearer.
Employment by establishment size
In the 2023 U.S. file, establishments with fewer than five employees accounted for 11,533 establishments and 9,868 employees. Establishments with five to nine employees accounted for 10,062 establishments and 8,599 employees. Together, those two smallest bands represented 21,595 establishments and 18,467 employees, using the published counts.
The next size band was much smaller in establishment count but larger in average employment per establishment. Businesses with 10–19 employees accounted for 1,534 establishments and 6,181 employees. Establishments with 20–49 employees accounted for 223 establishments and 1,513 employees. The 50–99 employee band accounted for 24 establishments and 247 employees.
| Establishment employment band | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 5 | 11,533 | 9,868 |
| 5–9 | 10,062 | 8,599 |
| 10–19 | 1,534 | 6,181 |
| 20–49 | 223 | 1,513 |
| 50–99 | 24 | 247 |
| 100 or more | 0 reported | 0 reported |
The 2023 CBP U.S. file reported no mobile-food-service establishments and no employees in the 100-or-more employee bands. The figures show that the reported industry footprint was concentrated below 20 employees per establishment, with only 247 employees in the 50–99 band. The counts are descriptive of the CBP categories; they do not establish how many people work on one particular truck during a shift or how many vehicles a single establishment operates.
States with the most mobile-food-service jobs
The County Business Patterns: 2023 State File recorded the largest employment totals among the listed states in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Washington, and Arizona. Employment was measured during the week of March 12, 2023.
| State | Employees, week of March 12, 2023 |
|---|---|
| California | 4,788 |
| Texas | 3,647 |
| Florida | 3,091 |
| New York | 1,762 |
| Washington | 1,444 |
| Arizona | 1,329 |
California led the listed states with 4,788 mobile-food-service employees. Texas followed with 3,647, while Florida recorded 3,091. New York had 1,762 employees, Washington had 1,444, and Arizona had 1,329. These are industry employment counts for each state, not occupation-specific counts for cooks, servers, drivers, or owners.
The state comparison also needs a geographic qualification. CBP state data identifies employer establishments and their employment at the central establishment location. It does not show where a truck served customers on a particular day, and it does not separate a multi-vehicle operation into one employment record per vehicle.
Employer establishments by state
The state file counted 1,329 mobile-food-service employer establishments in California in 2023. Florida had 1,151, and Texas had 1,140. New York had 498 establishments, Washington had 411, and Arizona had 297.
| State | Employer establishments, 2023 | Employees, March 12 week |
|---|---|---|
| California | 1,329 | 4,788 |
| Florida | 1,151 | 3,091 |
| Texas | 1,140 | 3,647 |
| New York | 498 | 1,762 |
| Washington | 411 | 1,444 |
| Arizona | 297 | 1,329 |
California had both the highest establishment count and the highest employment total among these states. Texas and Florida had nearly the same number of establishments in the reported data, but Texas recorded more employees: 3,647 compared with Florida’s 3,091. The figures should not be used to calculate an exact staffing level for an individual business, because the CBP categories aggregate establishments and measure employment in a specific reference week.
Payroll by leading state
Annual payroll also varied across the listed states. The County Business Patterns: 2023 State File reported payroll in thousands of dollars, so the published values below retain that unit.
| State | Annual payroll, 2023 (thousand dollars) |
|---|---|
| California | $148,202 thousand |
| Texas | $89,107 thousand |
| Florida | $76,548 thousand |
| New York | $52,023 thousand |
| Washington | $47,589 thousand |
| Arizona | $28,426 thousand |
California’s reported annual payroll was $148,202 thousand. Texas reported $89,107 thousand, and Florida reported $76,548 thousand. New York reported $52,023 thousand, Washington $47,589 thousand, and Arizona $28,426 thousand.
Payroll totals are not wage rates. They combine the payroll recorded across establishments and can reflect differences in employment, hours, business size, and the timing covered by the annual measure. The data also does not provide a separate payroll total for each job title used by a food truck.
Wage benchmarks for food-truck staffing
The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a useful industry benchmark, but its Current Employment Statistics series combines caterers and mobile food services under a 2022-NAICS category, 72232,3. It is therefore not an exact NAICS 722330-only wage measure. In the BLS Table B-8b earnings series, production and nonsupervisory employees in the combined category averaged $23.69 per hour and $568.56 per week in September 2024.
The same table reported an average of $24.05 per hour and $596.44 per week in July 2025. In August 2025, the averages were $23.53 per hour and $585.90 per week. The table’s September 2025 column was marked unavailable and is not used here. No 2026 value is inferred.
For occupation-level context, the BLS Occupational Employment and Wages—May 2024 release reported 13,613,490 national jobs in food-preparation-and-serving-related occupations. That occupational group had a $17.32 mean hourly wage, a $36,020 mean annual wage, and a $16.41 median hourly wage in May 2024. These are national occupation benchmarks, not food-truck-industry-only counts.
The same May 2024 release counted 182,320 chefs and head cooks nationally, with a $31.11 mean hourly wage. It counted 668,230 fast-food cooks, with a $14.97 mean hourly wage. A food truck may use work that resembles either occupation, but these national counts do not identify how many of those workers were employed by mobile-food-service establishments.
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers reported a $14.92 median hourly wage for that broad worker group in May 2024. The lowest-paid 10 percent earned less than $10.88 per hour, while the highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $19.65 per hour.
Within the same occupational benchmarks, food servers in nonrestaurant settings had a $16.57 median hourly wage. Dining-room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers had a $15.71 median, while fast-food and counter workers had a $14.65 median. Hosts and hostesses in restaurants, lounges, and coffee shops had a $14.61 median hourly wage.
These occupation figures can help describe the kinds of roles commonly associated with food-truck staffing, but they are not direct estimates of food-truck pay. The industry benchmark combines caterers with mobile food services, and the occupation benchmarks cover workers across many food-service settings. They should be kept separate from the 2023 CBP employment, establishment, and payroll measures.