The National Restaurant Association has released its annual State of the Restaurant Industry report, giving a broad assessment of trends in the restaurant industry and making numerous predictions for the near future. The new report, released on Feb. 1, predicts slower growth in the industry in 2022, while describing many of the challenges faced by restaurants in this choleric economic situation. The report forecasts that restaurant industry employment will rise by 400,000 jobs to a total of 14.9 million by the end of the year, making for a significantly slower growth pattern than that witnessed in 2021, when federal monetary policy and gradual emancipation from pandemic restrictions stimulated the regeneration of a battered economy. However, restaurant operators continue to experience perturbation about the immediate future, with over half of those surveyed saying that it would take over one year for business conditions to return to normal. An astonishing 96 percent …