NT targets southern states in hospo recruitment campaign
The Northern Territory’s hospitality industry has launched a new recruitment campaign in an attempt to attract southern workers to combat the enormous staff shortage they are encountering.
This comes on the one year anniversary of Prime Minister Scott Morrison announcing Australia’s first COVID-19 lockdown.
This initial lockdown was the first of many across the country that saw pubs, clubs and many other venues close for long periods of time.
According to Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce, the past year has been an “absolute rollercoaster” for hospitality venues across the Territory.
“We have seen a lot of innovation and hard work from our businesses and are incredibly appreciative of all the hard work from all those involved in keeping us safe,” Bruce said.
“We have been blown away by the support of our great local customers and feel humbled to be part of our great community.”
Bruce said that one year on, there are substantial staff shortages particularly in remote and rural areas.
“The majority of our business is recruiting and need more workers as we ramp up to hopefully a busy dry season,” he said.
“It’s a nice problem to have because it shows businesses are doing well.
“Very different to 12 months ago, before JobKeeper where the surplus workforce was let go, and we were trying to get them fruit picking jobs.”
Hospitality NT is preparing to launch an interstate and local recruitment campaign.
They will be asking Territorians to consider joining the industry. They will also be targeting those in NSW, VIC, SA hoping some people will want to move to NT during the colder months.
“We want you — we’ll be targeting NSW, VIC, SA especially as they enter miserable winter months,” Bruce said.
“In addition to the ‘Holiday Here This Year’ Tourism Australia message, we are encouraging a Work Here This Year message.”
Despite not fully recovering from pandemic lockdowns, Chamber of Commerce NT chief executive Greg Ireland is encouraged to see businesses ramp up operations ahead of the upcoming dry season.
However, he did note some businesses, especially those working in exports and reliant on international tourism were doing it tough.
“The lockdown certainly came as a shock to many Territory businesses, especially those who were reliant on customer-facing experiences,” he said.
Irit Jackson, 22nd March 2021
