'Action needed' to help region's struggling hospitality businesses recruit staff

There is a severe staff shortage for our region's tourism industry due to the effects of the pandemic.

Adverts for jobs in tourism sector have boomed in the last few months, with local businesses finding that staff who they had placed on furlough, have since found jobs elsewhere.

Whitby is one of the tourism areas in our region being impacted by a lack of staff. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

Whitby is one of the areas being affected. When businesses should be making up for lost time and taking as restrictions ease, many are searching for staff.

Jill Blackburn says shortages are impacting on the working hours of the staff she already has. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

One of the UK's biggest recruitment agency websites has seen jobs in hospitality and catering increase by 188% in the last seven weeks. Industry experts fear that the sector is actually being hit by a double whammy of both the pandemic and Brexit, with the same research reporting a 50 per cent drop in overseas applicants for UK jobs. That is a fall of more than 250,000 workers coming to the UK and filling jobs. 

Hospitality bosses say action is needed to help support businesses who are trying to recruit staff. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

Industry leaders the region's coastal resorts inevitably suffer the most because they're already harder to reach, making jobs less attractive for lower paid staff.