Waiters are missing: the hotel industry employs 73,000 fewer workers than before the pandemic

Spain has reached

in April for the first time in history.

Today it has

, which shows that membership has not only recovered from the impact of covid but has resumed its growth path.

However, there is a sector in which the balance is still very negative: the

.

It is the ugly duckling of the

presented this week by the

, since it is the only one that has

, before the covid arrived.

There are only four sectors in the country in which enrollment is still below pre-pandemic levels, but none with such a deficit of workers.

Financial

today employ

than before the pandemic, something that can be explained by all the Employment Regulation Files (ERE) and restructuring processes that have occurred in the financial sector in 2020 and 2021 .

also have fewer workers

, due to the sales problems that the sector has experienced due

in supply chains, and there are also fewer people dedicated to

In both cases, the deficit of workers is below 10,000, very far from that of the restoration.

The

is thus presented as

, despite the recovery that has occurred in economic activity, the end of health restrictions due to the relief of the pandemic and the restoration of

.

The main reason is in the difficulties that hoteliers are having to hire staff.

"The problem of labor affects us a lot

because in the end a company cannot grow if it does not have labor. We lack workers to carry out the activity, not only my company, we have a shortage in the province of almost 5,000 workers. We

field workers, engineers...", laments

a hotel and restaurant entrepreneur from

.

, a family businessman from

, who owns a grocery store, a cafeteria that opens every day, and a furniture store,

coincides with him .

"

The population is very old, there are no young people, the distance to any other population is very important, and that makes us

", he laments.

In total, the employers' association of small and medium-sized companies,

, has estimated this week at

and has warned of the problem that this lack of labor entails for the productive fabric.

Construction also in trouble

The personnel problem suffered by

will predictably worsen this

, given the positive prospects in the tourism sector.

According to data from the

tourist association , in the third quarter

while in the final stretch of the year (October-December) it will exceed it by 0.7 %.

"An

by domestic demand and that of neighboring European markets, such as France, and a high dynamism of the main European emitters (United Kingdom, Germany). On the contrary , we foresee a still reduced presence of long-haul demand, especially Asian and a certain brake on the North American, given the confused perception of insecurity due to the war, which they have over Europe and Spain", they explain.

Although the hospitality industry is the only sector in which there are fewer active staff than before the pandemic,

also suffers from a significant lack of workers.

According to data from their employers, the

65% of construction companies in Spain find it "extremely difficult" to hire construction managers and other profiles such as carpenters, technical facade installers, structural prefabricated assemblers are also lacking , rope access specialists and crane operators.

The sector has lost nearly 300,000 jobs for young people under the age of 25

since 2007 and is now struggling to fill vacancies.

In the coming years, it is expected that it will need to incorporate

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

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