Job prospects in hospitality downright poor – or not?
Working in hospitality is classified by UWV as ‘least promising’, just like a job as an institutional cook, travel advisor or flight attendant. But hospitality entrepreneurs see the UWV report as bad publicity for their profession. They say the staff shortage was already considerable before corona, and will only have grown in the meantime.
When restaurants and cafés are allowed to reopen, it will be quite a challenge to find enough staff to serve on terraces, pour beers and cook daily specials. A major concern for hospitality bosses, who already have enough on their plates due to corona measures.
Dishwashing area or supermarket
Many staff members with temporary contracts and seasonal workers have sought another job out of desperation. Students now work as shelf stackers rather than in the dishwashing area, while temporary workers have found jobs as parcel delivery drivers or order pickers. Major stress when hospitality is allowed to reopen, because where will entrepreneurs find new staff at short notice? All the experienced workers are now delivering parcels or sitting behind the checkout at the supermarket. And a new UWV report, which maps out promising and less promising careers, only makes matters worse, hospitality entrepreneurs believe.
Dreaming of a career
Every year, UWV maps out which professions offer good prospects and which are actually hopeless. Dreaming of a career as a doorman or hospitality manager? Keep dreaming, UWV advises, because it predicts few job opportunities in those professions in the near future. That is stated in the agency’s report on prospects in the hospitality industry. And they are not good, as is plainly stated in the report. ‘According to forecasts (…) the number of hospitality jobs will fall by a total of 59,000 in 2020 and 2021, an unprecedented decline of almost -11%.’ UWV is particularly pessimistic about waiting staff, including those in managerial roles, and hotel receptionists. Cooks do not need to worry; they will continue to be badly needed. Moreover, a large group of cooks had permanent contracts, meaning they remained in hospitality over the past year as well, the report states.
Where are the tigers?
The hospitality industry is protesting. Such a negative report will discourage young people from pursuing hospitality training. And where will the new generation of hospitality tigers (ugh, what an irritating buzzword) come from? They foresee a screaming shortage in the coming period, once the measures are scrapped and we can all enjoy eating out again. Around this time last year, Koninklijke Horeca Nederland and SVH calculated that there were ten thousand vacancies in hospitality, and those vacancies certainly have not been filled in recent months.
Working overtime
Isn’t the hospitality industry also partly to blame for its staff shortage? Despite that screaming shortage, working conditions in hospitality are still not good everywhere. Long days, lots of overtime, meagre pay and little chance to move up the ladder do not exactly make hospitality a desirable sector.
