Boris Tomic, editor-in-chief of the German trade publishing company DFV, has written an opinion piece on the labour situation. He summarises that the hotel and catering sector is experiencing a surge in visitors after the pandemic closures while waiting times are already unusually long in many restaurants due to a lack of table service. Masses of event enquiries are being cancelled due to staff shortages. Tourists are slowly returning to the big cities, but this has become a massive problem due to the lack of surplus cooks and waiters. This is on top of the already known challenges of a tightening supply chain, high energy costs and food inflation. The sector has lost 160,000 full-time jobs registered with the TB and 200,000 mini-job workers have virtually disappeared. Statistics in Germany are not accurate either, so where they have disappeared to is not proven, but it can be seen that many have gone into retail, health care and nursing jobs. The term “Great Resignation” has already been coined in the US. Labour market experts believe that the phenomenon of people giving up their immediate goals, becoming resigned and eventually resigning from their contracts is becoming more and more widespread worldwide. In a survey of IT companies that polled 30,000 workers in 31 countries, 41% of respondents said they had considered quitting their jobs. In the US, Gallup’s survey shows that the figure is as high as 50% for middle-aged people, with the number of people in the 30-45 age group quitting their jobs up by 20% since 2020. For many, the pandemic has shown that it’s good to be at home and that you can get by on less money. And the time freed up then has provided an opportunity to rethink the work-life balance for many after the burnout that preceded it. We are now seeing an increasing proportion of the baby boomer generation even entering early retirement, so there are fewer people to fill positions. A good proportion of them is not, to put it diplomatically, entirely career-minded. So it is clear that the problem of attracting and retaining staff will increase enormously in the future. Forward-thinking managers have been dealing with this for some time, and those who have not should start now.
