Some restaurants may have to 'hibernate' at Christmas if they can't get staff
Liverpool chef says hospitality in the city is ‘booming’ but they need more staff to keep up with demand so places don’t have to turn guests away.
With Christmas party season quickly approaching, some Merseyside restaurants may have to offer less covers to revellers as they can’t find enough staff.
<a class="article-body-link" href="https://twitter.com/Porkyaskew" target="_blank">Paul Askew</a>, Chef Patron of <a class="article-body-link" href="https://theartschoolrestaurant.co.uk/about-us/" target="_blank">The Art School</a> in Liverpool, has been there since it's launch in 2014. Paul was also the Food & Beverage Director at The London Carriage Works in Liverpool for over a decade before that. Paul said there have been many reasons the industry are struggling to staff people.
Paul told us recruitment during the past 18 months has been: “quite a battle.”
He added: “We lost a lot of European cousins who’d returned home to be with their families for the pandemic and then of course Brexit happened.
“I think what you had was a gap in quality and experience in terms of people not returning to hospitality in their numbers.”
The CGA who works with food & drink suppliers, hospitality operators & financial institutions, carried out research into food and drink prices.
They found inflation in hospitality hit 15% for the first time in the history of the Foodservice Price Index.
However, with more freedom and the run up to festivities growing, many restaurants are getting busier than recent years in the city.
For anyone struggling to find a job restaurant owner Paul has some advice.
He said: “Come to hospitality, there are so many opportunities.
“It is booming but we need to have those staff in place to be able to grow the economy and get the recovery back going again.
“I still think we need a little more support from the government and we will keep lobbying for that.
“But genuinely there are lots of jobs and I think Liverpool as a city has always had that spirit and that determination to have a good time no matter what.”