“Where can we find employees? Very few people apply. It's very complicated
, ”wonders Lorenzo Dri, director of employment and training at the Union of Trades and Hospitality Industries (UMIH).
Already in desperate need of arms since their reopening a year ago, the sector is still trying to recruit 213,000 seasonal workers as the summer season approaches.
To discover
Taxes 2022: all about your tax return
Read alsoLow pay, staggered hours... Catering faces the loss of love for the profession
The UMIH wants to focus on students but recognizes that applications are not flowing from young people looking for a summer job.
To fill this gap, the sector is targeting another category of workers hit by a high unemployment rate: seniors.
“Our professionals also recruit people over 50 or 55 years old.
Adapted contracts, often shorter with a single service at lunchtime or in the evening, are offered to them”
, we explain.
The organization also collaborates with Pôle Emploi, which makes its database of job seekers available to relay offers for cooks and waiters.
Appeal abroad
But tensions on the French labor market, where there is a general labor shortage, are pushing companies in the sector to look abroad.
The UMIH plans to recruit workers in Tunisia trained in the hotel and catering trades.
Discussions between the employers' organization, the equivalent of Pôle Emploi in Tunisia and the French authorities have been carried out for several months to offer fixed-term contracts to 4,000 Tunisians according to
Ouest-France
, which ensures that the UMIH is also discussing with Morocco to overcome staff shortage.
“The recruitment of Tunisian workers will barely cover 0.1% of our needs. But we absolutely need waiters, cooks”
, explains Lorenzo Dri, who recalls that foreigners will benefit from declared contracts with the same salary conditions as their French colleagues.
Read alsoQuadrupling the foreign workforce: an economic necessity for Japan
Since the pandemic, the hotel and catering industry, which was forced to shut down for several months by health restrictions, has experienced a massive wave of departures.
237,000 people left the profession over the period from February 2020 to February 2021. Despite a general increase in wages of 16% on average, restaurateurs have still not managed to compensate for these losses.
