The Fast Casual Nation podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurateurs who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron gives a deep dive into the latest hiring stats, fast casual trends, and vaccination requirements for restaurant and hospitality workers.

Following in the footsteps of Walmart, Google, Tyson Foods, and other large corporations, McDonald’s has put in place a vaccine mandate for its U.S. corporate employees. The requirement will go into effect September 27.

“With labor already at a pressure cooker point, the question is going to be how this will apply to restaurants in the franchise community,” says Barron. “There’s going to be all kinds of new case law on this. This policy by McDonald’s could definitely spark a heavy amount of interest, especially with the Delta variant.”

Chipotle is also considering whether to require vaccines for all of its employees, including at the store level. At the same time, restaurants have seen a hiring boom, hiring 1.3 million employees since January—a 15 percent increase from July 2020.

According to the latest Foodable Labs data, loyalty visits are up by 3.9 percent amongst the top 50 fast casual concepts. Takeout also saw a 9.4 increase in July, with 53.7 percent of fast casual consumers increasing their at-home ordering.

“Everything has been skewed over the past 18 months because everything is moving in that [at-home ordering] direction,” adds Barron. “There has also been a 129 percent rise in plant-based options in fast casual menus… this bodes well for the industry. Still, the question always comes back to taste: if we see more products make it to the menu, will they perform well in terms of sales?”