Restaurants in New Jersey are seeing more diners. News 12's Kristie Reeter is breaking down an increase in reservations.

In a News 12 poll, New Jersey residents were asked: how are you dining out? In the state, 57% say they just show up to the restaurant without a reservation.

Whether you are making a reservation or calling ahead, we need that spike in restaurant reservations. Are we talking about an increase in New Jersey? Caleb Silver, with Investopedia, is answering the question.

"Yeah, finally we are seeing some increases just in the month of February, a 6.4% increase in reservations compared to pre-pandemic levels,” says Silver. “That's pretty good, that's after falling about 25% in January as folks stayed in due to omicron, but we are finally seeing recovery in New Jersey's restaurants."

More diners mean more business, which means more restaurants are hiring. Is that the case in New Jersey?

"Yeah, we have seen a nice pickup in hiring in the first half of 2021 where we saw about 91% of the jobs recovered in that sector or 204,000 jobs,” says Silver. “There has been a slowdown Kristie. Since July, restaurant jobs in New Jersey have slowed in terms of growth. Hopefully that picks up again as we get into the spring and nicer weather."