The brutal figures are in, with just how much the pandemic cost, and it practically destroyed the hospitality industry across the world in many cases. The UK itself saw its fair share of a downturn, losing around £115 billion [1] in the hospitality industry during that period. Yet as the pandemic finds itself in a manageable solution, the hospitality industry has been surging, especially in 2022. Being the 3rd largest sector in the UK, the demand for those to enter the industry has left many vacancies that a lot of companies within the industry are having trouble filling.
How much of a demand is there?
A recent check-in with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that there were around 173,000 vacancies [2] in the industry that needed to be filled as recently as July 2022. So while it is starting to trend lower, it is still a lot of positions, specifically in the UK, to fill up. In addition, the restaurant industry itself has been hit hard, with a big demand for chefs and waitstaff. This has forced the operations of these businesses to be reduced and to have to close their locations prematurely, simply because there's not enough staff.
This could have been how the industry was treated when the pandemic happened, and the experienced staff had around two years to look for new work without knowing when they would ever be able to return back to their old roles in the food services industry. With fewer people looking for these positions, there are also fewer people training for these positions as well, leaving everything from sous chef to chef to head chef positions completely vacant! Over 5,000 chef positions alone are empty [3], which is more than the need for waitstaff currently.
There’s also a great wage to be earned as a chef, that’s hovering around £32,000 [4], but keep in mind this salary is a generic salary for anyone who's designated to cook in a restaurant. This can vary widely, and the sky is the limit on how much can be made by chefs depending on how exclusive and high-end the restaurant is. Restaurant managers find themselves with salaries on average just above £34,000 [5]. These salaries will only go up as there are so many vacancies left which means that the best way to entice people back into this industry is to offer better working conditions, benefits, and of course, salary.
Yet regardless of what the industry needs to do, it's very expensive to consider hiring hospitality staff one at a time, as well as time-consuming and near impossible. Restaurants need to staff several people at a time, and needing to restaff up to those levels is a daunting task.
Work with us
We are filling vacancies for our Hospitality Employers at a rapid rate. You're already losing money by not having a fully staffed location, so that's why it's best to consider working with us. First, we focus only on your industry and work to post and manage your available positions on industry-specific job portals besides the main generic job boards. On top of that, when you choose our simple Bronze, Silver or Gold package, you can hire one or ten people per position with the package, all for a fixed price. There's no cost scaling and no hidden costs. The higher-level packages simply have us do more of the work for you and start to become your outsourced recruitment specialist team, screening and presenting the best candidates for your hospitality-based business. We do all the work, All you do is Select & Hire!
