Labour shortage hits hotel and restaurants hard, and will worsen

Economists say restaurant and hotel jobs are high-stress with long hours, unstable schedules, low wages and sometimes gruelling conditions

Restaurants are being hit hard by labour shortages.Jeff Turl/BayToday

The Labour Market Group (LMG) June report released today has some bad news for the local tourism industry.

Restaurants and hotels will continue to be amongst the worst hit by the labour shortage presently causing problems in the business community.

The report says nearly two-thirds of businesses in accommodation and food services said they would face labour shortages in the next three months
– the largest proportion across all other sectors.

"In March 2022, the job vacancies for this sector rose to 12.8% –the highest rate across all sectors in the 11th consecutive month," it says.

"This sector was also most likely to see a spike in the number of vacant positions in the next three months."

Economists say restaurant and hotel jobs are high-stress with long hours, unstable schedules, low wages and sometimes gruelling conditions

Industries expecting labour shortages in the next quarter of 2022 include:

Accommodation & food services (64%)
Construction (45%)
Manufacturing (44%)

Statistics Canada conducted the survey from the beginning of April to early May 2022. During that period, businesses with more employers were at greater risk of losing their employees in the next three months. Based on these results, employees may be required to put in more working hours to address the labour obstacles.

Locally, the report states there were 703 job postings recorded for Nipissing district in the month of June. This is a slight increase; +9.2%, to the previous month's figure of 644 postings and is significantly above; +47.6% the five-year June average of 476 postings.

"This significant shift is still very much attributed to the change in collection methods for this project. 315 unique employers posted jobs in June; also significantly above (+43.8%) the five-year June average (219) for this variable.

View the full report here.

LMG works with a variety of community stakeholders to develop a better understanding of labour market issues and their impacts, generate awareness of existing workforce trends and increases capacity for collaboration and partnerships.

The top five employers posting jobs in the Nipissing District were: