UK restaurant workers urged to go to NZ, despite rising UK demand

New Zealand restaurants and bars are looking to recruit restaurant workers from the UK, despite strong demand in the UK for quality hospitality staff.

The Antipodean country has seen vacancies increase by more than 50% in the past year, said Paul Arthur, director of the Emigration Group, who stated that workers will find more opportunity abroad. This is despite the buoyant hospitality jobs market in Britain and the UK.

Arthur's comments come in light of last week's campaign by VisitEngland for English Tourism Week (14-22 March), which highlighted that nearly half of all UK chefs' jobs are proving difficult to fill.

VisitEngland based its message on figures from the Employer Skills Survey from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), which said that the hotel and restaurant sector was struggling to full 20% of vacancies for skilled jobs, and 47% of jobs for chefs.

This was especially the case in London (66% of skilled kitchen jobs were difficult to fill) and in the South East (46%). Skilled kitchen jobs made up just over a fifth (21%) of all skill shortage vacancies for skilled trades, said the report.

Similarly, at The Caterer's Foodservice Forum, held at Kings Place in London, BaxterStorey director Simon Esner said that the UK would need to rely on older workers over the next 10 years if it were going to fill the 13.5 million jobs expected to hit the workplace market.

Nearly half of skilled chef vacancies are difficult to fill >>

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