A report commissioned by the British Hospitality Association says hospitality and tourism faces a recruitment crisis without future EU migration
The KPMG report says it faces a shortfall of 60,000 workers every year if EU immigration is too tightly controlled, and that’s in addition to the ongoing recruitment of 200,000 workers required to replace churn and to power growth.
It says up to 24% of the sector’s workforce is made up of EU migrants and the labour shortfall 10 years after Brexit would be 1 million if EU migration fell to zero from 2019.
The BHA published the report as it sent the Government an draft 10-year strategy for recruiting a substantially higher proportion of its workforce from the UK.
But it stresses that it will need continued, but declining, access to the EU workforce over that time.
The strategy focuses on three main sections of the populations – the unemployed, returners to the labour market such as older people, and the next generation.
Plans include using Premier League clubs as centres for running job fairs under the name The Big Hospitality Conversation. These have already been held successfully at stadiums, including Liverpool’s Anfield stadium and Tottenham’s White Hart Lane.
BHA chief executive Ufi Ibrahim said: "It is clear from the KPMG report that hospitality and tourism face major problems in recruitment if there is any major cut in the number of workers allowed to enter from the EU.
"We want to avoid there being any cliff edge but the Government must be aware that in the medium to long term we will still need considerable numbers of EU workers, who have contributed so much to our industry and the UK economy in general.
"We have submitted our strategy to Number 10 Downing Street because we are aware of our responsibility to encourage more UK nationals to see the career opportunities available in hospitality and tourism.
"We do need the Government to play their part too, by recognising our employment needs and recognising how important this industry, the fourth largest, is to the country. We also look forward to working with the Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Education to implement our strategy as well as the Business Department."
