Deep Dive: Tracking restaurant reservations for New York state

Tracking restaurant reservations tells us a lot about our recovering economy.
In this week's Deep Dive, News 12's Kristie Reeter and Caleb Silver, of Investopedia, take a look at the numbers for New York.
In a News 12 poll, a majority of Brooklyn and Bronx and Long Island viewers said they will be returning to indoor dining. On Long Island, 31% of viewers said they would be cooking at home. And in Westchester, there's a tie between cooking at home and returning to indoor dining.
Looking at restaurant reservations for the New York area through Open Table, Silver says there's been a pickup in reservations going into November. But numbers were down as much as 35% in August and September from 2019 levels.
What impact do restaurant reservations really have on the economy?
"Well in NYC we have so many restaurants we lost a lot about 3,000 during the pandemic, but the restaurant industry just here in NYC employs some 487,000 people that is 17% lower than it was in October of 2019," says Silver.