The Restaurant Association is calling on Kiwis to join the hospitality industry to fill the summer worker shortage.
The latest Restaurant Association Hospitality Report finds that nationwide sales for the hospitality industry have bounced back after two years of subdued trading but skills shortages continued to plague the industry.
While 2022 employee numbers reversed the decline seen in 2021 to reach 135 thousand employees, at 0.37 per cent this is the lowest growth level in more than 10 years.
The Restaurant Association estimates that a further 30,000 workers are still needed to join the nation’s restaurants cafes and bars, across the summer months alone, and its calling on Kiwis to jump in and give it a go.
“Everyone loves to dine out in the summer months, but its going to be challenging for our businesses to stay operational without sufficient workers. So we’re calling on any Kiwis who might want to earn a bit of extra money over the next few months to give hospo a go,” said Marisa Bidois CEO of the Restaurant Association.
“Working in hospo offers a range of different types of working hours. We have lots of people who have a few shifts a week while their kids are at school or when they’ve finished their studies that are making extra money and getting important work experience at the same time.
“Our businesses are committed to training anyone who doesn’t have experience so those that haven’t worked in the industry before don’t need to be concerned.”
The Restaurant Association has made a few of its introduction to hospo training videos available on its HospoLife website for anyone interested in finding out more.
A recent survey of Restaurant Association members indicated that 80 percent of respondents are not fully staffed. 92 per cent had found it difficult to recruit for a mid-senior level position and 65 per cent had found it difficult to recruit for junior level positions.
“We are working hard in partnership with MsD on training through our HospoStart programmes but the reality is that more needs to be done to attract people to our industry,” continued Bidois.
“To help create our long term changes, we have a roadmap guiding us towards the industry’s revival and to a stronger more resilient industry. We know that no organisation can implement change alone so we are engaging with key industry stakeholders.”
Hospitality businesses can list their vacancies on the regional facebook job boards and those interested in finding out more about a career in hospitality can head over to the Hospolife microsite. or add their profiles on the Facebook job boards.
