Hospitality job vacancies remain 'stubbornly high'

The number of job vacancies in the hospitality industry has fallen by 37,000 over the past year, although the sector continues to struggle with staff shortages.

There were 132,000 unfilled roles across the sector between February and April this year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is a 9% drop on the previous quarter and a 22% decline on the same period last year.

However, trade body UKHospitality said vacancies were still 48% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The ONS said some businesses were putting recruitment on hold due to economic pressures.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said vacancies remained “stubbornly high” despite a “huge effort” from hospitality operators to invest in talent and offer more flexibility to teams.

“We continue to hear that worker shortages are forcing venues to reduce opening hours or trading days, demonstrating that vacancies are not reducing quickly enough to fulfil hospitality’s enormous potential,” Nicholls added.

The trade body is calling on the government to add more hospitality roles, such as chefs, to the shortage occupation list to make it easier for businesses to recruit from abroad.

However, an interim report by the Migration Advisory Committee in March said it had not seen enough evidence staff shortages could not be filled by UK workers.

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