Worrying labour shortage in Hungarian hospitality industry, will employees return?

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40-50 thousand people left the hospitality sector, and they do not plan to return, ever. This will affect tourism in great ways, especially regarding the prices. Data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH) shows that 193,000 people worked in hospitality in 2019. In 2020, this number dropped below 177,000.

In Hungary

The coronavirus was a huge hit to the sectors of tourism and hospitality. In a former article in June, we reported that job applicants with modest skills could get the jobs for which there had been competition 5 years before. Another surprising information was that managers and salespeople had to take up cleaning chores because of labour shortage.

In August, Daily News Hungary wrote that labour shortage remained one of the biggest problems. Chefs and waiters were in demand, guests became fewer in number, and employers tried to make up for the labour shortage by employing student workers. Meanwhile, labour became 20% more expensive, and raw materials became 10% pricier. In September, we brought some bad news. One of Budapest’s oldest Hungarian restaurants closed after nearly 140 years. Read about the unfortunate event HERE.

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Globally

Napi.hu writes that in the United States, 892,000 people quit their jobs. The majority of them worked in hospitality. In Italy, the labour shortage in the sector was estimated to be 10%. 42% of companies that operate hotels and hospitality facilities were concerned about labour shortages in Germany. In Greece, 20% of former employees left their jobs. The vast majority of them never want to return to their former positions.

Hungarian labour shortage has its negative consequences as well.

László Kovács, the President of the Hungarian Catering Industry Association, said that 40-50 thousand people were missing from hospitality, and most of them never plan to return. There are people who went back to their former jobs, but many people found jobs in other fields. Some of them work in commerce or construction, but IT was also an attractive career option for them. Former hospitality employees, in some cases, are willing to earn less money at a more stable job.

Many applicants for hospitality jobs now have unrealistic expectations when negotiating their wages. Raw materials and wages remain the same as in the summer or will possibly become more expensive.