News

Hospitality sector lists 500K-plus job openings for seventh consecutive month

September 11, 2014

Job openings in the hospitality sector topped 500,000 (583,000 job openings) for the seventh consecutive month in July, the first such occurrence since before the Great Recession.

July also marked an increase of more than 100,000 job openings over what was reported at the end of last year.

The National Restaurant Association's chief economist, Bruce Grindy, said in a news release that the gap between monthly hires and job openings is rapidly shrinking. Restaurants and lodging places filled 706,000 positions in July, which marked the third consecutive month in which total hires topped 700,000.

"While it doesn't necessarily indicate that the industry is careening toward a full-blown labor shortage, the underlying fundamentals suggest that the labor market is likely tightening," Grindy said.

In the NRA's August 2014 Tracking Survey, only 9 percent of operators said recruiting-and-retaining employees is the No. 1 challenge currently facing their business.  Meanwhile, 29 percent of operators said high food costs were their top concern in August. 

In May, 16 percent of operators said recruiting-and-retaining employees was their top challenge, which represented the highest level since February 2008.