24 June 2009 – Knight – hospitality sector  hotting up

With big events like Wimbledon and Glastonbury centre court and centre stage this week, Employment Minister Jim Knight today encouraged young people to take up the exciting temporary summer opportunities in the hospitality industry.

Meeting the members of the National Employment Partnership, launched in February by the Prime Minister, Jim Knight welcomed the work being done by employers to help people back to work and highlighted the summer season as a way for young people to help them develop skills and get into longer term jobs.

He warned that increased demands will be made on the hospitality industry in the run up to the Olympics in 2012, and said employers should now step up their training and recruitment to meet the challenge.

Jim Knight said:

“There are some really exciting jobs on offer for people at some of the UK’s major events – just this week people will start temporary jobs at Wimbledon and Glastonbury. But these don’t have to be just for a few days, you can get contracts working a few events over a number of weeks. This can provide a stop gap between jobs or education, an opportunity to learn new skills or try out a job you think you might enjoy, or simply to work hard and have some fun.

“The 2012 Olympics will be the biggest event the world has ever seen. The UK will be welcoming thousands of international athletes and hundreds of thousands of visitors.

“We want to show off to the rest of the world, and the hospitality sector will be at the forefront. Language skills and cultural understanding will become more important than ever, and if we get this right, we can encourage people to keep coming back to the UK, providing an enduring boost to the economy.

“Government must do more to make sure it is offering employers a package of support in terms of recruitment and training. The hospitality sector must also take up the help and work with Government to ensure people are getting the right training before they start work.

“This industry will continue to grow as long as we can create that link between skills and jobs. We must ensure that people get the right training and skills today so people are ready to take up job vacancies tomorrow. The only way to do that is to make this partnership work.”

People can access one of the 26,000 vacancies in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector by logging onto www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk

Notes to Editors

1. The Hospitality Sector has been identified as an area to target with much potential for large scale recruitment.  The sector has been one of those least affected by the recession.  Employers are still looking to recruit high volumes of staff.
2. In May 2009 approximately 73,000 people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance were seeking a job in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector. This is a rise of 74% on the year. The overall claimant count is up 89% on the year.
3. Jobcentre Plus were notified of approximately 26,000 vacancies in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector in May 2009. This is down 4,400 (14%) on the year, this compares with a fall on the year in overall vacancies notified to JCP of 20%.
4. The hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector employs nearly 2 million people. Of these, the largest group (520,000) work in 64,000 restaurants. Nearly a quarter of all staff are from an ethnic minority background. Nearly a quarter of all staff are full time students. One in three of all staff are aged under 25. There are approximately 182,000 UK establishments within this sector. Only 0.2% of all businesses within this sector have more than 250 employees but they employ 45% of the workforce.

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