Report warns of crisis in hospitality recruitment

THE hospitality sector faces a post-Brexit recruitment crisis if the door is closed to EU migrants, a report warns.

The industry needs to hire more than 60,000 workers per year, as well as find another 200,000 to fill vacancies and power growth, according to a study by KPMG for the British Hospitality Association (BHA).

The report states that the sector will be more impacted by restrictions on EU migration than any other part of the economy.

The BHA has presented the Government with a 10-year strategy to recruit more British workers, but wants continued, though declining, access to the EU workforce over that period.

EU migrants account for nearly a quarter, 24%, of the three million hospitality workers, including 75% of waiting staff, 37% of housekeeping employees and 25% of chefs, according to the report.

It states that if EU migration ended when the UK is due to leave the bloc in 2019, the sector would experience a labour shortfall of one million people within 10 years.

BHA chief executive Ufi Ibrahim said: “It is clear from the KPMG report that hospitality and tourism face major problems in recruitment if there is any major cut in the number of workers allowed to enter from the EU.

“We want to avoid there being any cliff edge but the Government must be aware that in the medium to long term we will still need considerable numbers of EU workers, who have contributed so much to our industry and the UK economy in general.”