So – we’re pretty much all agreed that economic growth in 2013 will be virtually non-existent yet, despite this, we’re forecasting to see up to 660,000 hospitality jobs created by 2020. The hospitality industry is expected to grow by almost 2% this year, and add around £40bn to Britain’s flagging economy.
The serious shortage of hospitality industry candidates
But who will fill these new roles? The country faces a serious shortage of candidates…
With 8 restaurants opening in London this week alone, the reality is we simply can’t keep up with the increasing demand for hospitality staff. This is echoed by over a quarter of UK hotels and restaurants who claim they are finding it increasingly difficult to fill vacancies (mainly chefs) due to nationwide skills shortages.
This lack of good talent is starting to have a major impact on businesses with hard to fill vacancies as they start to report seeing an increase in operations costs.
Our sector desperately needs more staff and, as this problem starts to become more apparent to institutions, we’re starting to see a rise in Hospitality Schools. Both Marriott Hotels and Raymond Blanc have introduced apprenticeship schemes…
These initiatives aim to train staff on the job and help them move up the career ladder, but we all know this is for the long term and isn’t going to happen overnight.
A short term solution is needed to fix this problem as expansion of London’s hospitality industry sees no sign of letting up: a further 5000 new hotel rooms are expected to open in London alone later this year.
Article written by Chefs Jobs UK
Chefs Jobs UK is an established Chef agency based in Lancashire supplying Relief Chefs to establishments nationwide since 1990. We tailor our service to meet each individual client’s needs, and all our Chefs are fully reference checked. All our consultants also have experience working in the hospitality industry and are registered with the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation), which means they’re dedicated to maintaining best practice in recruitment.
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