The £30k salary boom and why zero-hours naysayers can pipe down

I’ll jump straight in with the really interesting statistic here.

This latest bit of freshly squeezed metrical juice is about recruitment levels in the hospitality sector. Job board site Caterer.com has registered a 14% increase in the number of jobs advertised with an annual salary of more than £30,000. Simultaneously, it registered an 11% drop in the number of jobs advertised with salaries smaller than £20,000.

That’s all great stuff, but after a while, endless stats have a numbing effect. We became bored of the endless bad news during the down turn, and sure as eggs we’ll start getting bored of the good news on the way up. However, what’s particularly important about these particular statistics is the quality of job on offer in hospitality is rising in direct parallel with hoteliers’ economic fortune.

Zero-hours contracts have provided a much-needed level of flexibility for the sector, given the seasonal (and even daily-fluctuating) nature of resource requirements at hotels and restaurants. But such contracts have come under heavy fire politically – the notion of half the working population being in a job but not knowing if they will still have it by tomorrow is damaging to society, so the argument goes.

In spite of this notion, whilst hospitality has a disproportionately high level of zero-hours contracts, salaries are rising. Who can plausibly criticise the industry when, as soon as the upturn starts palpably materialising, it starts raising the bar on pay?

Not convinced that the upturn is in fact upon us? Caterer.com found that the volume of jobs posted for the three months to June 30 soared 22% this year compared with the same period last year. The site’s Hospitality Employment Index report said 43,787 jobs were advertised during the period. In total, 151,452 jobs were advertised on the site by employers between June 30, 2013 and June 30, 2014, representing a 17% rise compared with the previous year.

That is indisputable evidence of a sector that is making more money than before. Rarely do hoteliers – or indeed business owners in any sector – want to splash the cash on extra staff when occupancy rates are less than desirable. They’d rather ‘trim the fat’ and nail costs to the floor. Battening down the hatches until the economic storm passes.

More now than at any point in the last 6 years, it looks like the sun is shining again.