Hospitality jobs up but job hunters lag behind

There has been a significant rise in the number of hospitality jobs but the sector is struggling to attract employees, result in a “dwindling candidate choice for businesses. 

This is according the latest database figures from UK job-board CV-Library, which highlighted that job postings in the hospitality sector have risen by 61%  during July compared with the same month last year.

The majority of job vacancies were located in the South East which saw a 73% increase in job roles year-on-year, while the biggest increase in vacancies occurred in the South West (75.3%).

The region totalling the fewest number of job vacancies in July 2015 was the East Midlands, but it still saw regional growth of 14.3% when compared with July 2014.

Despite growth in the number of jobs, the number of job hunters applying for roles in the sector only increased by 8.5% compared with July last year. CV-Library said that these numbers leave an overall deficit of 32.5% in terms of the number of applications per role.

It said that this is “concerning news” for businesses, whilst a hospitality company could expect to receive 27.7 candidates per role in July 2014, comparable data for July 2015 shows that this number has reduced to 18.7, meaning businesses have less choice during the selection process.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, said: “Our latest data demonstrates that businesses need to be savvier at attracting new talent to their organisations. With jobs on the rise, applicants can afford to be more selective in their job search.

“This data combined with the reality that the industry faces staggeringly high staff turnover, means hospitality businesses have a bigger challenge on their hands.”