Job perks: Love affair with café culture stirs up demand for baristas
IRELAND’S embrace of coffee culture has led to a massive rise in the demand for baristas here.
Since 2015, there has been a 79pc increase in the number of vacancies for baristas on jobs website Indeed. In the last year alone, there has been a 25pc increase, Indeed said.
Ireland is more traditionally associated with a strong love of tea, but the surge in barista roles is consistent with figures from UCC Coffee Ireland showing that one-third of Irish people buy a cup of coffee at least once per day.
Chris McDonald, vice president EMEA at Indeed, said: “The rise of hipster café culture in Ireland is a clear trend, with booming recruitment for baristas to fulfil our love affair with our daily caffeine jolt.
“Our research also suggests that the recovery in the Irish economy is supporting increasing recruitment in the restaurant sector.
“With unemployment at an 11-year low, there is now intense competition between employers for recruits, meaning more attractive pay packets and employee perks are increasingly likely to be on offer,” he added.
Indeed said there had been a 71pc increase in job openings for chefs here in the past three years.
But it warned that this year could be tougher for restaurants and cafés, with the Vat rate for the hospitality sector having been lifted to 13.5pc as of the beginning of the year. Some outlets have already increased their prices for coffees.