According to a recent study, there is no significant improvement in sight for the shortage of skilled workers in hotels, restaurants and pubs. Almost 44,000 vacancies for skilled workers in hotel and catering professions are compared to just over 29,000 suitably qualified unemployed, according to the Competence Center for Securing Skilled Workers of the employer-related Institute of German Economy (IW).

The hotel industry, where currently 42.8 percent of the vacancies cannot be filled with suitably qualified unemployed people, and the catering industry, where this applies to 40.1 percent of the vacancies, are particularly affected. According to the study, the gap in skilled workers is greatest among cooks, where there are 7,555 skilled workers nationwide.

“The sharp increase in the shortage of skilled workers can be explained above all with a lower supply of available unemployed people and less with an increase in vacancies,” says the study. Many employees and the unemployed have turned their backs on the hotel and restaurant industry in the wake of the corona pandemic. At the same time, fewer career changers from other sectors would have dared to step into the hospitality industry.

According to the study, the situation is made more difficult by the fact that no relief is to be expected from the training market either. In the hospitality industry, it has been extremely difficult for years to fill the training positions that are offered.