Hospitality industry has 14,000 jobs available in major shortage of staff

The word is out: the catering industry in the Netherlands is crying out for staff, after a really tough year. There are many reasons behind the staff shortage, discussed also elsewhere in this Holland Times. This is not new, as the shortage of staff has been going on for quite some time. However, it has only gotten worse due to the crisis. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported that the number of catering establishments and restaurants increased by 5 per cent last year, despite the corona crisis. There are now almost 14,000 open vacancies in hospitality. As a result, the catering industry is crying out for cooks, dishwashers and servers.

“I’m working seven days a week, fourteen hours a day. That’s unsustainable,” says restaurant owner Jesse Hamming. He has now made the decision to close the restaurant in Maastricht that he runs with his parents for two days a week. This is the first time they have done this and the main reason is staff shortage. “My father and I help out in the kitchen. To be open all week, we need a full-time waiter and two chefs,” says Hamming to NOS.

Former employees find new passion due to Covid During the Covid lockdowns, many staff were forced to find new jobs and 122,000 jobs disappeared. Now, many find they do not want to return to the hospitality business. Richard van der Splinter was a bartender for 22 years. Due to corona, he lost his job. In order to pay the bills, he started working in an elderly care facility. He likes it so much that he doesn’t want to go back to his former career. Former catering manager Patrick Ummels experienced the same. He now works as a team leader in a vaccination center. “I wanted a job in healthcare, but without experience it turned out to be difficult to get a head start. I see this opportunity as a stepping stone.” He does not think he will ever return to his former job. Jean Carlo Castro Escobar also has no plans to return. Now he works as a house painter. “I was at home for almost three months and I couldn’t go to work. The restaurant was closed.” He saw no way out and is happy with the switch. “The work is fun, you have more free time, and if you work longer, you earn more.” Now, he only comes to the hospitality industry as a guest.

On the other hand, Spanish cook Juan José Rosello loves the restaurant environment. He has been working at the Van der Valk restaurant in Eindhoven for a few days now, after he lost his job in Mallorca, Spain. “People in the Netherlands would rather have an office job. In the hospitality industry you work a lot of hours, sometimes a few hours in the morning and then again in the evening. That’s hard work, but it’s my passion. I’m so happy that I can work here,” says Rosello to NOS.

Horeca Academy To reduce the outflow of good staff, among other things, a number of Haarlem catering entrepreneurs have now set up the Haarlemsche Horeca Academy. They work together with the municipality, educational institutions and the UWV. One of the initiators is Hildo Makkes van der Deijl, owner of three catering establishments. “We want to give employees career prospects. That is why we have set up a cooperative with which we jointly hire staff.”

Sixteen entrepreneurs have joined the Academy so far. Employees will rotate between the various affiliated companies. Beach bars, for example, need a lot of staff in the summer and little in the winter. In the quiet winter months, the beach bar employees can be deployed via the cooperative in places where it’s actually busy. The cooperative provides staff with training and courses. “Waitering is a respected profession in France and Italy. You are happy when you have an older, experienced waiter who can tell you everything about the menu and wines. Unfortunately, we don’t have that here,” says Makkes van der Deijl.

It is clear that the Corona pandemic has led many people to reconsider their careers. For now, the hospitality industry has to find ways to deal with the consequences.

Written by Raphael Vieira Perachi

The corona crisis has had several effects, from the mental health impacts of social isolation to income lost in the travel and hospitality sectors. Now that the economy is partly up and running again, many employers are struggling to meet their labour needs. It is becoming almost impossible for employers in many economic sectors to fill their rosters – a stunning development given last year’s warnings about an impending mass unemployment crisis.

During last year’s lockdowns, experts repeatedly warned of an almost unavoidable unemployment crisis destined to flow from shutting down the economy to limit the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19. Yet, now that the dust has largely settled, a very different reality has become apparent. Companies are currently struggling to find enough workers to stay afloat.

Randstad, one of the largest temporary employment agencies in the Netherlands and abroad, cannot keep up with the unmet need for temporary workers. According to the agency’s latest numbers, a shortage of close to 100,000 temporary workers looms. In July 2021, there were approximately 207,000 open positions, an increase of more than 63 per cent from the year before. Dominique Hermans, CEO of Randstad Netherlands, suggests that staffing difficulties have had negative consequences for economic growth: “Because of the persistent scarcity in certain sectors, a number of companies are struggling to meet their potential.”

Almost no economic sector has been spared from the consequences of the worker shortage. Public transportation has been impacted: ProRail has been forced to reduce the number of in-service trains, as the company cannot find enough workers with adequate training to run a complete schedule. Alliander, an energy company servicing several communities in North Holland, has an installation backup for similar reasons. Demand for truck drivers and experts in logistics has more than doubled.

The worker shortage is actually causing more stress than the pandemic-related lockdown for many companies. “I spoke to an entrepreneur with two restaurants in Utrecht. Throughout the pandemic, he’s never been more stressed than he is now. He had to close three days in one week due to a staffing shortage. We put one labour market crisis behind us and have moved on to the next,” suggested Freek Kalkhoven of the UVW, the organisation that arranges benefits for people who can’t work.

Companies have been having trouble finding workers since well before last year’s shutdown. There were already signs of a tight employment market as far back as 2019, when Statistics Netherlands (CBS) recorded the lowest unemployment numbers in 20 years. During the first part of the pandemic, a record number of workers applied for unemployment benefits, but that number has since returned to pre-pandemic levels. Approximately 3.3% of the population is currently unemployed – one of the lowest unemployment levels in Europe.

The lockdown and subsequent recovery have impacted various businesses differently. The shortages have had the greatest impact on technology, sales, logistics, IT and construction. Many sectors that were struggling to find employees before the lockdown are finding it even more difficult now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted, partly due to a mismatch of skills between available workers and the businesses that need employees the most. “Many people have left the sectors that were affected by the lockdown. But someone from the hospitality industry cannot just go and work in IT. So in the sectors where there was already a shortage – which were not affected by the pandemic – things have remained the same. And the affected sectors that are now allowed to open again, are empty-handed, as many of their employees have moved on to new jobs,” suggests Arjan Heyma of SEO Economic Research.

The shortage appears to be related to an increase in temporary workers in pandemic-related jobs, large numbers of individuals leaving the employment market and fewer students entering the labour force. Covid-19related employment, such as testing and vaccinations, attracted thousands of new and temporary workers last year, and many workers from outside the Netherlands returned home during the lockdown. In addition, many students have chosen to remain in school rather than begin working in the uncertainty of the post-pandemic labour market. “There simply aren’t enough new graduates to meet the need in certain sectors,” according to Hermans. For the foreseeable future, the problems seem as yet unsolved.