Tracking restaurant reservations tells a lot about the recovering economy. In this week's Deep Dive, News 12's Kristie Reeter and Caleb Silver with Investopedia take a look at the numbers for New Jersey and ask what your dining plans are.

In a poll taken by News 12, in New Jersey, a majority of people say they are returning to indoor dining.

This is a big time of year for restaurants, but there is a new variant of COVID-19. There are also supply chain issues. So, what are we seeing?

"Well the omicron variant is the unknown variable for the entire economy, but especially the restaurant industry and New Jersey had been experiencing a nice rebound in reservations when we look from the late summer months into the fall restaurant reservations were up 9.2% in September, falling a little bit into November, only up 3.3% around the holidays there,” says Silver. “It was coming back a little bit, hopefully it continues to come back and your poll shows that a lot of people want to eat out, that's a great sign."

Some people might think what do restaurant reservations really have when it comes to impacting the economy, but it really is big.

"I would say it is huge, it is bringing tax revenue into the state that is super important it is also jobs,” says Silver. “We have about 200,000 people working in the restaurant industry in New Jersey, but it is down 10% from 2019 levels and you have some great restaurants in New Jersey it would be great to see those fill up again."