Around a third of 32% of hospitality businesses are planning to limit functioning hours over Christmas due to a lack of staff, a new Future Shock report by CGA and UKHospitality found.
“Many of the vacancies have been created by EU workers leaving the UK while unfair perceptions of hospitality as a temporary, demanding and unrewarding career persist” the report stated.
Some 19% of hospitality workers have left their employers in the last three months.
“Reducing opening hours will also reduce income at what should be the most profitable time of year. Christmas usually generates the cash that tides businesses through the quiet first few months of the year” said the report.
This will only add to worries as the hospitality industry continues to shrink.
Approximately 11,500 premises have stopped operating since Covid, with a 9.9% net decrease in outlets between March 2020 and September 2022.
In the months between June and September this year, the UK lost 2.1% of its hospitality sites, with community and food pubs down 2.2% and 1.5% respectively.
Hotels and bars fared best in keeping venues open in the 3 months to September while nightclubs falling were up by 5.6% in the same period.
“Businesses that were weakened by months of lockdown have been pushed to the wall by soaring costs, and independents have borne the brunt of the closures” the Future Shock report stated.
UKHospitality has proposed a ‘two-phase approach’ aiming to tweak immigration and the apprenticeship levy regime in hopes of increasing staff.