Hospitality sector 'increasingly confident' about job creation

The Barclays Job Creation Survey 2013 found that 61% of businesses in the sector expect to create jobs this year, up from 55% last year, while 77% don’t plan to make job losses in the next 12 months.

The survey shows that on average, hospitality and leisure businesses are more interested in hiring former public sector workers than other industries. Half of firms in the sector would do so, a similar proportion to last year (51%). By comparison, 57% of businesses across all sectors said they did not want to hire ex-public sector employees.

Hospitality and leisure firms are also increasingly hopeful about employment generally. While half of businesses in the sector believe private sector job growth will not be able to compensate for public sector job losses, this compares to 66% last year.

The vast majority of hospitality and leisure companies (87%) believe Government efforts to remove barriers to job creation are having no impact on their business, although this is a slight improvement on last year (89%). A further 72% believe a reduction in employer’s National Insurance contribution would have an impact on the job market, a third of whom (33%) state it would have a "major" change on the market.

Almost a third (30%) of hospitality and leisure businesses believe the "Shares for Rights" scheme, designed for high-growth small and medium enterprises, will not be popular among small businesses. A further 30% had not heard of it.

Mike Saul, head of hospitality & leisure, corporate banking, at Barclays said: "Despite the discretionary nature of the hospitality and leisure sector, it is one of the largest employers in the UK, and has weathered the economic storm well.

"It is well-placed to offer opportunities to a broad spectrum of individuals from many different employment backgrounds, and as our research shows, there is clearly room and appetite to develop these aspirations."
Barclays surveyed 700 firms across all sectors and found 71% of mid-sized businesses are creating jobs this year, up on the previous year (65%). The majority (79%) of businesses are not planning any job losses within the next 12 months.

There are significant differences in hiring intentions for 2013 between sizes of companies. Sixty five percent of large businesses are planning to create jobs - fewer than last year (72%).

Half of the largest businesses are planning to hire, a significant reduction in hiring intention, compared to previous years (2012: 70%, 2011: 85%). Overall 56% of all companies plan to create new jobs this year, which is little changed from last year (2012: 58%).