Hospitality staffing shortage set to impact customers

Hospitality leaders are calling for a huge recruitment drive to fill the estimated 200,000 shortfall in hospitality workers nationwide. 

Jeffrey Williams, chief executive of Barcats Australia, said without action to stem the current staffing shortage customers are the ones who will suffer. 

“We need 200,000 new workers, which is three times the size of the entire Australian Defence Force,” Williams told The Daily Telegraph. 

“The reality is, if we don’t get workers back, customers will suffer. Customers face a 25 per cent increase in wait times, reservation unavailability, increased costs, limited menus and opening hours and a decline in service quality.” 

Williams estimates that there are more than 5,000 vacancies across key parts of Brisbane’s hospitality sector alone including 1,000 kitchen staff and 1,500 baristas. 

Williams called on workers of all ages to become “part of this hospitality army”. 

“This is an industry that hires across a variety of ages – from university students, to retirees, and some of the 180,000 graduating year 12 students across the nation,” he said. 

Queensland Hotels Association chief executive Bernie Hogan also warned the hospitality sector’s staffing shortfall is affecting the whole country. 

“It’s probably the most acute it’s been in quite some time,” he told The Daily Telegraph. 

Hogan said it would not be a quick fix but needed both the return of international workers and a renewed push to attract more local workers. 

“We’re not going to suddenly create more workers overnight,” he said.

AHD - 10/10/22