On Deep Dive this week, News 12 is looking at dining trends in New Jersey. 

Investopedia Editor-in-chief Caleb Silver is looking at the data from Open Table, which is an online restaurant reservation service company.  

New Jersey was very hard hit in the pandemic, especially in the restaurant industry.  

Silver shares that the state saw a big recovery in July with 8% increase from July 2019 levels, and in August it is only up about 4%. 

The New Jersey restaurant industry generated some $18 billion in sales in 2019. 

It employed about 350,000 residents as of 2019, but about 151,000 jobs were lost in the industry amid the pandemic.