Hospitality Vacancies Fall But Still Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Levels

While the number of job vacancies in the hospitality sector remain critically high the downward trend in vacancies continues Between November 2022 and Januar y 2023 the number of vacancies stood at 146,000 according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a fall of almost 3% (4,000) on the previous quar ter between August and October 2022

While this figure remains significantly higher than vacancy levels pre-pandemic , the figure has been falling in recent quar ters Between July and September 2022, the number of hospitality vacancies fell by 15 000 to 158 000 unfilled roles between July and September 2022, down from 173,000 from April to June

The government has come under increasing pressure to add the hospitality sector to its Shor tage of Labour (SoL) scheme which it introduced for the adult social care sector in Februar y 2022, which enables the sector to attract and recruit workers from overseas

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We continue to live through “challenging times Ever y day we seem to hear of doom and gloom stories By and large they are justified - the economy is in a mess with high inflation, high energ y costs, staffing shor tages, and high business rates - but, this is the situation we find ourselves in and we have to deal with the best way we can!

I have just returned from a two day hospitality trade event in the West Countr y, and off to another in two weeks’ time I was pleasantly surprised while staying in this cathedral city to see how busy the pub and bar sector was on cold dark early Februar y evenings

Trade events always give the oppor tunity to get feedback from operators at the coalface While we are by no means out of woods yet (and according to indications we will probably see the economy deteriorate possibly for the first two quar ters this year) there appears to be a sense that “ we are where we are , and we are going to trade through it and come out the other side”

We had quite a few positive comments, I'm delighted to say, and many of the comments relate to our ongoing campaign to reduce hospitality

VAT

Terms like “ no brainer” were used, since almost all operators I spoke to are well aware of Europe’s attitude towards hospitality VAT, and how most countries have significantly reduced it which is resulted and more money for the treasur y in the long term

Even a temporar y rate to at least give it a chance would be a sensible solution But as we all know all protests have thus far fallen on deaf ears

Personally I think any petitions on this topic would be a complete waste of time , we are probably only about 18 months away from a general election

So now is the time to lobby your MP If they want to keep their seat then they want your vote

That gives you and me and ever ybody else in the countr y some bargaining power

Again this is something we will be taking forward right through to the next election - a campaign by ever ybody involved in the hospitality sector to contact your current MP and all parliamentar y candidates and get a definitive answer on what their opinion is on hospitality VAT unless they would suppor t a cut

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