Business View Oceania - Oct 2023

18 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 5, ISSUE 10 immigration factors and a lack of working holiday visa holders already here. Immigration plays a key role in enabling both our sector and the economy at large to function. It’s not about pushing Kiwis out of work, because we are at historically low unemployment rates and immigration will plug skills gaps and solve part of the industry’s skills shortage. There’s nothing the hospitality industry would like more than to employ Kiwis, and many more of them. That will to a long way to ensuring our sustainability into the future. But going by latest estimates, we will continue to be short-staffed for some indeterminate time to come. A report from Perform X and Dot Loves Data, an industry partnership assessing workplace performance, estimates that in 2025, cafes and restaurants will be short 2767 staff, or 3 per cent of the workforce. The outlook is even worse for pubs and bars, which will be short 1934 staff (14 per cent of the total), and hospitality clubs, which will be 726 short (18 per cent of the total). These are massive gaps, and despite our very best efforts, we are going to need help to close them. It’s certainly not been due to lack of trying on our part. We have promoted hospitality as an industry that provides options and opportunities for those looking for flexibility in their work hours, and those entering or re-entering the workforce, demonstrating the long-term career pathways within the industry, and investing in on-premise training to attract talent, Hospitality NZ’s Knowledge Hub has been putting a huge amount of work into supporting the development of the workforce by way of a wide range of workstreams.