Staff turnover rate highest in London

London and the South-east have the heaviest rate of labour turnover in the country, according to a survey commissioned by the Hospitality Training Foundation (HTF).

In the South-east, two-thirds of waiting staff left their jobs within a year, but the rate for hotel chefs in London (46%) was singled out for particular concern. The turnover rate was only slightly lower among restaurant chefs in the capital, at 40%.

Market researcher Bostock carried out the survey of 1,800 companies in November and December 1999.

Martin Christian Kent, HTF's senior consultant for labour market intelligence, said: "Rather than get new staff, employers are using the existing workforce to plug holes. Government figures show 75% of hospitality jobs advertised in JobCentres are unfilled. The remainder, especially chef posts, tend to be filled in an informal word-of-mouth way."

He added: "People move around to gain experience, which has an impact from an employer's perspective. We need to raise the debate over what degree of turnover is inevitable, and suitable."

Kent said that one remedy for the vacancy issue might lie with non-EU workers, from whom applications for hospitality jobs had doubled in the past year.

There were no statistics on the number of chefs moving out of the industry.

by Ben Walker