German restaurateurs are urgently looking for workers, after many left that job during the coronavirus lockdown. Where are they now? And how long will the sector need to recover?

It is similar across Germany. Deny Scarlino, the owner of a bar near Stuttgart, says that six employees left him during the pandemic. “One started driving a truck, the others moved into industry, where they have more regular working hours,” he says.

There was no real ‘wave’ of departures

Maren Eli (33) worked in top restaurants, where she met her husband, who is a chef. She believes that state aid during the period of forced leave was insufficient.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to live without gastronomy,” says Eli. But then she got a job in marketing and is thrilled. Regular working hours, free weekends, time for family. Now she can no longer imagine working in a restaurant again.

Recently, associations of restaurateurs and hoteliers sent a dramatic appeal to the authorities to make it easier to hire workers from abroad, primarily from Balkan countries. It is estimated that 60 percent of hospitality establishments are looking for workers.

But Enzo Weber from the Institute for Labour Market Research says that during the pandemic there was no particular ‘wave’ of departures from gastronomy, quite the opposite. During the pandemic, he says, fewer people left the job than before it. But the problem is that no new ones were being hired.

“Other sectors are the winners, for example supermarkets, food delivery, call centers, or sectors such as public administration, kindergartens, and care work. Employment shifted there because they were hiring more than others,” Weber says.

Corona faster than the labour market

Both gastronomy and air transport were first caught off guard by the pandemic, but then also by the rapid recovery from it. People would now again like to spend money in restaurants or on travel even more than before the pandemic.

“Now everyone is trying to rebuild their business at the same time. But the labour market simply isn’t that fast. So, corona is too fast for the labour market,” Weber adds. He predicts that it will take until next year for things to be brought back into balance.

Former hospitality worker Maren Eli, meanwhile, says that employers in gastronomy must attract workers with better conditions.

“It starts with pay. In some job ads I read that connections by city public transport lines or payment according to the collective agreement are emphasized as advantages. But those are not privileges, those are basic conditions,” Eli believes.

Source: poslovni.hr