We also considered the effects of the economy, as represented by the unemployment rate. It appears that there is a direct relationship between the local unemployment rate and restaurant failure, given that ZIP code 80301, with the highest unemployment rate (7.8%), also had one of the highest restaurant failure rates. This indicates that the unemployment rate could be an important factor in evaluating the status of the restaurant industry, and it supports the work of Smith (1983), Parsa et al. (2013), and many others who showed a direct relationship between restaurant fail- ures and unemployment.