Number of job vacancies in hospitality drops by 15,000

The number of job vacancies in the hospitality sector dropped by 15,000 over the last quarter, figures show.

There were 158,000 unfilled roles in the accommodation and foodservice sectors between July and September this year, down from 173,000 from April to June, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Many hospitality businesses have raised wages and boosted their recruitment initiatives this year following a widespread shortage of staff, with some targeting older workers and offering on the job training to people without CVs. Others have widened staff perks, offered more flexible shifts, and helped their teams with housing and loans to pay off debts.

But some businesses have had to cut back on staff numbers or close altogether amid rising costs. Some 80% of operators who responded to The Caterer's survey on spiralling energy bills said they had reduced the size of their team as a result.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the figures showed work to boost recruitment from some companies was “beginning to pay off” but the staffing crisis was not resolved.

Nicholls added: “[There] are still significant vacancies, stifling our ability to drive growth. There is still work to do and we continue to hear from businesses about how recruitment challenges are putting the brakes on recovery.

“Steps from government such as ensuring skills and recruitment initiatives are open to all sectors, a comprehensive employment and skills strategy, and making the Skilled Worker Visa route more streamlined and affordable would be significant in realising hospitality’s potential to drive economic growth and value to the economy.”

Earlier this year operators told The Caterer they had struggled to navigate the visa sponsorship route and criticised the amount of time it took to process applications.

The overall number of job vacancies in the UK fell by 46,000 to just over 1.2m between July and September, the lowest level since the last quarter of 2021.

Hospitality saw the largest drop in vacancies of any of the job sectors tracked by the ONS.

Image: Ceri Breeze / Shutterstock