Nearly 20,000 people are seeking waiting staff jobs, but bars on the Costa still can't fill vacancies

Following the meeting held on Monday between the Junta de Andalucía's regional ministry for employment and Mahos (the hospitality trade association of Malaga province), the latest data on jobs in the sector came to light: in the area - which includes the Costa del Sol - there are about 20,000 people seeking jobs to wait on tables. Such a hefty number clashes head-on with the "problematic deficit" in qualified staff that the president of Mahos, Javier Frutos, mentioned to SUR at the start of this week. Between 5,000 and 6,000 people are needed for the high season and yet bars and restaurants are unable to find suitably qualified staff.

This was one of the reasons given by the Junta's employment ministry and Mahos, to which is added "the lack of interest" of applicants to commit to the profession. They mention this because those who go to the employment office "tend to put the hospitality industry as their main profession and yet they are not qualified or trained", said Javier Frutos in his analysis of the problem with SUR.

Frutos himself, after learning of this job-seeker data, stated that his trade association is considering "launching a campaign to encourage hospitality industry leaders to recruit those thousands of job seekers." Speaking on behalf of the regional ministry for employment, the Junta's local representative in the province, Carmen Sánchez Sierra, gave her analysis of the current situation in this sector: "In the preliminary study we've done, we showed that we have about 20,000 people registered in our employment offices who are looking for work as waiting staff. But then we find ourselves with this labour shortfall because there are businesses that are unable to contract qualified people." She also pointed out that registration is now open for people to enrol in the province's two hospitality training schools of La Cónsula and La Fonda.

Even though this training offered by the Junta de Andalucía is completely free, Carmen Sánchez Sierra admitted that many people just don't want to sign up for it. "Most of the time, when we call up the jobless to encourage them to sign up, they tell us they don't want to invest two years of their lives in training to become waiting staff. But they don't understand that that's not what it's all about, that with this training they can become good cooks, maybe even head chefs? In short, good hospitality professionals, which is precisely what the sector is demanding", she said.

The meeting also discussed the lack of generational renewal in the hospitality industry and the need to motivate and enhance the profession to make it more attractive to young people. "There's a very complicated connotation and structural problem at the national level. We need to talk about the culture of hard work.... Society now sees itself differently than it did a few years ago, prioritising leisure time much more than work. I'm not talking about putting in more hours, but rather requiring a small sacrifice, such as in this case, to undertake initial training and development within the hospitality profession itself", said Javier Frutos.

Even with this "problematic deficit", plus the large number of applicants at the Junta's employment offices that subsequently does not satisfy the hospitality industry's employers' need for qualified personnel, Mahos' president defines this as "the best of times for the hospitality industry in terms of pay." He noted the national 14.5% increase in hospitality salaries and "the 29 consecutive months of record-breaking staff numbers being hired in the province."