Hospitality salaries and jobs remain stable, reveals government data
The ONS Labour Market Statistics April 2011 found a general decrease in unemployment in the UK as a whole, with a drop of 17,000 in the number of people out of work in the three months to February 2011.
The latest figures are welcome news for the industry, but hospitality sector analysts stress that the market is still fragile and more action is needed to ensure a sustainable UK hospitality industry moving forward.
Hospitality jobs
ONS figures specifically for the hotel and foodservice industry reveal that there were 1.917m jobs in the sector recorded in the quarter ended December 2010.
This marks a slight decrease of 0.5 per cent (or 10,000 jobs) on the previous quarter, but is 1,000 jobs up on the same time last year.
There were 45,000 vacancies in the sector between January and March 2011, which marks a 4.4 per cent increase on the previous quarter and a 3.5 per cent increase compared to last year.
Hospitality salaries
The ONS figures also provide an indication of average salary levels within the hospitality and retailing industry.
When taken together, the wholesaling, retailing, hotel and restaurant industries account for 23 per cent of the total employee jobs in the UK.
Weekly earnings in the above sectors were an average of £294 in February 2011, which is 1.2 per cent lower than the previous month, but 0.4 per cent higher than the three-month average.
Temporary staff
Commenting on the latest figures, Konstantinos Makrygiannis, policy advisor of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's (REC) Hospitality group said: "The slight decrease in unemployment is welcome news, but today's figures show a fragile jobs market and confirm that we will not see any sustained decline in unemployment until the end of 2011.
“The figures match with the latest Report on Jobs produced jointly by the REC and KPMG. This showed that permanent and temporary staff appointments both rose, but at slower rates in March, while billings eased from the February peaks despite stronger increase in demand for staff.”
Figures from REC’s Report on Jobs reveal that in the hospitality industry in particular, higher levels of demand were reported for permanent staff. In a scale where every reading above 50 signals stronger demand, hospitality scored 54.2 compared to 53.5 in May last year.
Growth of demand for temporary staff was broad-based in March, with vacancy levels improving in the sector. UK hospitality scored 59.0 compared to 54.7 in May 2010.
Sustainable UK hospitality industry
“We may be seeing signs of recovery, but the industry is not out of the woods yet,” Makrygiannis told BigHospitality.
“With major issues like that of pay and reward levels in the sector still burning and policies like the immigration cap kicking in we need to take urgent action now for a sustainable UK hospitality industry.
“As well as building better bridges into the world of work through apprenticeships, internships and more effective careers guidance, the Government needs to consider more incentives for employers such as a National Insurance holiday when recruiting young jobseekers."
For more information on careers in the hospitality industry, including the latest jobs listings and careers advice, see BigHospitalityJobs.
