Fast food employees are quitting more than they have in 20 years, and technology may be to blame

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The stress of learning new technology, without additional training or compensation, is getting real at some fast food restaurants.

• McDonald's, Taco Bell, and other beloved fast-food eateries have implemented tons of new gadgets in their kitchens and restaurants.
• But they don't always train their employees on how to use them, and the new equipment often breaks down, fast food employees told Business Insider and Bloomberg.
• That's contributed to record high fast food employee turnover rates, MIT Technology Review reported in March. A restaurant that employs 20 people can expect to see 30 workers in the span of a year.

Zakkery Shoup would welcome the bevy of new tech like mobile ordering apps and self-service kiosks at Taco Bell, where he works - that is, if it weren't always breaking.

"We deal with a lot of faulty equipment that seems to constantly stop working," the Tennessee resident told Business Insider.

While the introduction of new equipment at fast-food restaurants is driving up stock prices, they're frustrating employees like Shoup who have to use them every day.

And it's part of the reason that fast food is experiencing its highest workforce turnover in 23 years, according to PeopleSoft data reported by MIT Technology Review last month.

The average turnover rate at a fast food joint has reached 150%.

That means a restaurant that employs 20 people can expect to see 30 workers in the span of a year - a record high since 1995, when PeopleSoft began recording the data.

This labor shortage is the biggest problem facing the fast-food industry in 2018, Dunkin' Donuts CEO Nigel Travis told Business Insider in February.

Nationwide, nearly 3.8 million people are employed at fast food restaurants. Analysts told Bloomberg in a March article about McDonald's that the fall in employer retention may be attributed due to new technology and an expectation for higher productivity despite a lack of wage bumps. And a job growth streak these past few years has created plentiful options for better employment.