Yum! Brands, Inc.’s YUM Pizza Hut and its franchisees are planning to hire 40,000 fresh permanent team members to work in restaurants across the United States by the end of 2021. Job seekers can apply for positions at corporate and franchised restaurants.Most of the jobs are for cook and driver roles as Pizza Hut continues to focus on contactless delivery and pickups. The reopening of economies and resumption of businesses are acting as primary drivers of new jobs in the space. Quite obviously, this reflects the growing demand for restaurant and cafe products.Cristi Lockett, chief people officer, Pizza Hut said, “Pizza Hut has continued to see explosive growth over the past few months, with the business performing extremely well as a result of increased demand.”Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchPrice PerformanceShares of the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have surged 39.7% in the past year, compared with the industry’s rally of 25.1%. Strong digital sales, record unit development, robust same-store sales, and the company’s ability to adjust operations, menu options and marketing worldwide helped it counter the challenging scenario.The company continues to benefit from robust sales momentum in North America, the U.K., and Australia, and improved performance in Europe. In 2020, digital sales increased to $17 billion, reflecting an improvement of 45% from the prior year. In the second quarter, it reported digital sales of more than $5 billion. During the second-quarter 2021 conference call, the company announced that it delivered digital sales of more than $20 billion on a trailing 12-month basis for the first time.The company is benefiting from expansion efforts. During the first, second, third and fourth quarter of 2020, it opened 515, 328, 556 and 1,024 gross new restaurants, respectively.Other Solid Restaurant BetsSome other top-ranked stocks in the same Zacks Retail - Restaurants industry include Jack in the Box Inc. JACK, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG and The Wendy's Company WEN, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Jack in the Box has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 26.4%, on average.Chipotle earnings for 2021 are expected to rise 137.5%.Wendy's earnings for 2021 are expected to increase 42.1%. More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone! It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 77 billion devices by 2025, creating a $1.3 trillion market. Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 4 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2022.Click here for the 4 trades >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Jack In The Box Inc. (JACK): Free Stock Analysis Report Yum Brands, Inc. (YUM): Free Stock Analysis Report Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG): Free Stock Analysis Report The Wendys Company (WEN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.