---
title: "Food Service Manager"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate activities of an organization or department that serves food and beverages."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-service-manager"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Food Service Manager

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-9051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-9051.00

Plan, direct, or coordinate activities of an organization or department that serves food and beverages.

Also advertised as: Banquet Manager; Catering Manager; CDM (Certified Dietary Manager); Dining Service Director; F and B Manager (Food and Beverage Manager); Food Service Director; Food Service Manager; Food Service Supervisor.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $69,390 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $33.36/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $45,960 to $107,640, with the middle half between $56,870 and $86,800
- **Total US employment:** 238,430
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.4% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 42,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 60/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 238,430 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $45,960 |
| 25th | $56,870 |
| 50th (median) | $69,390 |
| 75th | $86,800 |
| 90th | $107,640 |
| Mean (average) | $74,880 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $95,190 | $88,952 | 1,180 |
| MA | $92,240 | $87,219 | 4,310 |
| HI | $87,800 | $79,854 | 1,230 |
| NY | $84,200 | $78,020 | 8,000 |
| RI | $82,850 | $81,003 | 760 |
| AK | $82,030 | $80,140 | 380 |
| DC | $81,680 | $74,321 | 1,000 |
| VI | $80,570 | No BEA price parity | 140 |
| CO | $79,870 | $77,505 | 2,440 |
| MN | $79,820 | $80,936 | 730 |
| CA | $78,260 | $70,683 | 33,180 |
| NJ | $78,020 | $71,706 | 6,360 |
| CT | $77,990 | $75,273 | 1,520 |
| VT | $77,910 | $79,534 | 500 |
| NH | $77,360 | $74,267 | 590 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-service-manager/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/food-service-manager.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 352,800 in the 2024–2034 base year to 375,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 22,600 jobs, or +6.4%. Much faster than average: 6.4% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 42,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 29.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 21.3% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 18.6% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 16.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 9.7% |
| Some College Courses | 4.6% |

## What the work involves

- Review work procedures and operational problems to determine ways to improve service, performance, or safety.
- Investigate and resolve complaints regarding food quality, service, or accommodations.
- Perform some food preparation or service tasks, such as cooking, clearing tables, and serving food and drinks when necessary.
- Establish standards for personnel performance and customer service.
- Schedule and receive food and beverage deliveries, checking delivery contents to verify product quality and quantity.
- Monitor compliance with health and fire regulations regarding food preparation and serving, and building maintenance in lodging and dining facilities.
- Order and purchase equipment and supplies.
- Arrange for equipment maintenance and repairs, and coordinate a variety of services, such as waste removal and pest control.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 5.97 |
| C — Conventional | 5.06 |
| R — Realistic | 4.16 |
| S — Social | 3.53 |
| I — Investigative | 1.96 |
| A — Artistic | 1.63 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 86.4 |
| ESFJ | 82.6 |
| ISFJ | 67.4 |
| ISTJ | 66.4 |
| ESTP | 65.0 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Chef](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chef) — median $62,470
- [First-Line Supervisor of Food Preparation and Serving Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers) — median $44,080
- [Cook, Institution and Cafeteria](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-institution-and-cafeteria) — median $37,450
- [Cook, Restaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-restaurant) — median $37,390
- [Cook, Private Household](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-private-household) — median $47,940
- [Food Server, Nonrestaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-server-nonrestaurant) — median $35,360
- [Host and Hostess, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop](https://nuecareer.com/careers/host-and-hostess-restaurant-lounge-and-coffee-shop) — median $31,200
- [First-Line Supervisor of Retail Sales Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-retail-sales-workers) — median $48,520
- [First-Line Supervisor of Personal Service Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-personal-service-workers) — median $48,590
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/food-service-manager