As our bars, restaurants and hotels start to come out of cold storage they have a whole new set of challenges. The main one is a massive shortage of staff at all levels. There has always been a shortage of chefs but this has now expanded to most roles, especially at the lower end. Talking to people in the industry there seems to be a few things going on.
We used a lot of immigrant labour to plug the gaps, but a lot of these people have gone back to their home countries. Brexit is part of the issue, unsurprisingly when a large portion of the population tells foreigners to feck off they feck off. It is hilarious to see publications like the Daily Mail that backed Brexit now complain of no staff. But a bigger issue has been the pandemic: many people just decided to go home. It is a natural instinct to be with family in times of crisis. The economies of countries like Poland have been improving so there is less need for people to seek work abroad.
Also, people switched to more stable industries like retail, where the hours are more social and there are no customers complaining that their chips are not crispy enough.
We do not value restaurant work. In countries like France a waiter is seen as a worthwhile career; here we view such jobs as a sign that you could not get a ‘real’ job. The industry has a perception problem that hospitality jobs are only temporary jobs for young people until they get something better.
On the plus side, demand is booming. If you fancy 2 nights in July in the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle it will cost you £600 quid!
You may wonder who in their right mind would pay these prices. But while the pandemic has been bad for some in our society, it has been boom time for the middle classes. People have been working away but unable to spend any money so they have built up massive savings and are now ready to splurge.
We don’t have enough capacity in the local tourist market so every hotel, guest house and AirBnB is getting booked up. If you have not booked anything yet I suggest you get the finger out as it’s slim pickings out there.
The upshot of all this is prices have risen and will rise more. Already in some Belfast Bars pints of premium lager are over 6 quid:
Drinkers in NI are now paying up to £6.50 for a pint of beerhttps://t.co/20cRdH3YF3 pic.twitter.com/TQGaiqfzj3
— Belfast Telegraph (@BelTel) May 7, 2021
Now this is only some pubs. Throughout Northern Ireland things will be different but it is obvious that as costs rise prices need to go up.
For too long we have used foreign labour to plug the gaps and keep wages down. We need to give hospitality staff a decent standard of living. If we need to pay more for our food and drinks, so be it.
With nearly 30% of the population economically inactive you would like to think it would be easy to solve the labour shortages. But one issue is that some people are unemployable. Poor timekeeping, low basic skills, bad communication, terrible attitudes, etc. We have serious questions about how our education system can churn out so many people without basic skills.
Can I stress this is only a small percentage of people. Most people have a valid reason for being economically inactive. You also have to make jobs attractive to people – zero-hours contracts, poor pay, no promotion prospects, bad work environments etc I can understand why some people say no thanks. I have written before how we are now essentially at full employment. The BBC reports:
The inactivity rate in Northern Ireland stands at 27.9% compared to a UK rate of 21.2%.
Of the economically inactive, 82% did not want a job while 18% did.
Of those who did not want to work, 30% were long-term sick or disabled, 27% were students, 22% were looking after the family or home, 12% were retired and 9% cited another reason for inactivity.
Our politicians need to listen to the industry and work with them to improve standards and capacity. Hospitality has been growing and it has potential, but we need to work to ensure that people see this industry as a valuable career option.
Photo by Free-Photos is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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