One in six hospitality jobs now unfilled, warns CGA

One out of every six (16 per cent) hospitality occupations is currently vacant and industry-wide companies still struggle to fill gaps, according to the latest surveys by CGA and Fourth Business Confidence.

The exclusive survey from the third quarter sheds light on the intensifying crisis on the workforce in the industry: 96% of company heads now think there are shortages at the front or in the back, and almost three quarters (73%) expect them to take the same position at both.

Less than a fifth (18%) of executives said they are confident they will be recruited and retained in the next 12 months - a sharp decline down from the 67% who showed confidence in the previous survey just three months ago.

Three quarters said that they had made better remuneration available to workers in relation to their retention policies (76%) and improved their communication level (75%), whilst two thirds tried to find the correct employment culture (67%) and promote staff's well-being and mental health (66%).

Karl Chessell, CGA Director Hospitality and Food (EMEA) said: "These figures illustrate the full scale of hospitality's recruitment and retention crisis. Thousands of businesses are now critically short of staff, while many of those who have sufficient labour face a fight to keep hold of it. Gaps at front and back of house and fast-rising wage costs threaten to derail the industry's recovery, and sustained, targeted government support is now urgently needed to tackle the problem."