ANKARA

More than 8 million restaurant workers have been laid off or furloughed in the U.S. as the result of the coronavirus measures' impact on the economy, according to a survey published on Monday.

The National Restaurant Association's survey showed that 88% of the restaurant operators across the U.S. cut their employment since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in March.

On average, the operators cut 83% of their restaurant's total staffing, while 41% laid off or furloughed all of their staff.

The figure represents "more than two-thirds of the 12 million employees that were working at the nation's eating and drinking places in February."

Job losses were most evident in the table-service segment with 90%, followed by the fine dining with an average of 89%, while it is less common in the limited-service segment. Only %58 of quick-service operators went for staffing reduction.

The association said the survey was conducted among owners/operators of eating and drinking sectors, which employ 12 million out of the total restaurant and foodservice workforce of 15.6 million.

Although many states are under lockdown to stem the spread of the virus, U.S. President Donald Trump has recently been pushing the country to prepare plans to reopen the economy, declaring his "total" authority on the matter.

Trump also said he would prefer to work with states on the ease of restrictions and reopening.

The U.S. has surged to lead the world in the number of coronavirus infections and deaths with nearly 760,000 cases, 40,690 deaths and more than 71,000 recoveries.

Since the virus emerged last December in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it has spread to at least 185 countries and regions.

There are more than 2.4 million confirmed infections globally and over 166,200 deaths, while 636,183 have recovered.