The research by Claims.co.uk, which tracked job listings between 8 June and 21 June 2022, showed the UK set a record high of 1.3m job vacancies across all industries over the past three months.
The role of chef was the most in demand food service role, reaching 5,072 listings. This was followed by waiter which had 3,388 vacancies, with the barista position coming in third at 1,036 listings. Restaurant manager and kitchen porter roles had 789 and 645 vacancies respectively.
Healthcare was revealed as the UK industry most in need of workers, with 69,399 job listings across the same period in June. This was followed by the retail and wholesale industry, which advertised 33,587 positions.
Staffing shortage
Human resources and staffing placed third with 27,971 roles to be filled, and was followed by education in fourth place with 17,582 vacancies.
This comes after a survey revealed staff shortages within the hospitality sector had caused almost half (45%) of operators to cut trading hours or capacity to cope, costing the industry £21bn in lost revenue.
The joint research by UKHospitality (UKH), the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) and the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) showed staff shortages had reached a critical level and were damaging both the sector’s recovery, and the UK economy.
Recovery threatened
A joint statement from the trade bodies said the figures clearly showed the danger to the industry and financial loss to the country via taxes posed by the current staffing crisis.
This follows the launch by UKH of its nationwide hospitality workforce strategy to nurture cooperation between industry stakeholders and boost recruitment and training for a new generation of skilled hospitality staff.
The statement continued: “In short, the recovery of both the sector and the UK economy are being threatened by this workforce shortage.
“Operators have been doing all they can to help solve the issue, from increasing wages to flexible working.
“However, this can only help so much, and the sector must be given targeted support in order to solve the crisis.”
