HOTELIERS and caterers have blamed the transition year in secondary schools for the shortage of recruits for the industry.
Next summer, the numbers of school leavers will fall by 10,000, according to a trade magazine, Hotel and Catering Review. The industry will find it difficult to recruit staff, just as it is beginning to boom.
"Until now the catering industry was a buyers' market and could pick and choose from a plentiful supply of school leavers", the review's editorial says.
"Inevitably, the product of such a tradition was poor conditions of employment - not only in terms of minimum pay levels but also in long, unsocial working hours, inadequate career training, poor motivation and often primitive living conditions.
"But that market has now changed for the foreseeable future, at a time when the industry is booming and requires a larger intake than ever before. If Government targets are to be met, the hospitality sector will need 35,000 new workers before the end of the decade and those workers must be recruited in an environment where young people will be able to pick and choose".