New data has found the proportion of EU workers in the UK’s hospitality sector has dropped significantly over the last two years.
People from European Union countries made up 37% of the workforce at more than 700 hospitality companies in June, down from 43% two years ago, according to Fourth, a company that provides software to the industry.
READ MORE: Immigration: Holyrood and Westminster ready to do battle over refugee policy
The proportion of British workers in the sector rose from 46% to 51%, the data showed.
“A potent combination of Britain’s departure from the EU and the devastating impact of the pandemic continues to significantly shake up the sector’s labour market,” said Fourth’s Sebastien Sepierre.
It comes amid warnings from several restaurants that there have been problems in finding staff in recent weeks, with some closing down or slashing services as a result.
The data also shows thousands of workers in the sector are still furloughed.
Fourth said 45% of staff on payroll are still on full or flexible furlough. Although this is the lowest since the scheme began last year, it still represents a large portion of the workforce.
“The much-publicised staffing crisis is proving hugely challenging for operators, as a consequence of a clear shrinking of the labour pool, in back-of-house roles in particular,” Mr Sepierre said.
“It remains unclear how long this disruption might last and how it will be resolved in the months ahead during the long road to recovery.”
The trend towards fewer EU and more British workers looks set to continue as the right of Europeans to live and work in the UK is restricted after Brexit.
In June 63% of new starters in the sector were British, the highest figure since Fourth started measuring in 2016. EU citizens made up 28%, compared with 50% in January 2019.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here