Nearly half of pubs, bars and restaurants had to cut their opening hours

One out of seven hospitality jobs are unfilled, according to the latest Future Shock report, which has been put together by UKHospitality and insight specialist CGA.

The study suggested that this could have negative effects on approximately 16% of business sales.

Approximately 45% of those companies questioned declared that trading hours had been reduced due to a staff shortage and a third said that they would close for at least a day.

Operators reported that during the long closing and pandemic seasons some workers had moved to other sectors, while some EU workers had returned to the continent.

The report points out that 77 per cent of firms in the sector increased pay to keep and attract them, with the average increase in pay being 11 per cent in the last year.

Kate Nicholls, director of UKHospitality, said:"The sector has proved its value to consumers post-pandemic, with sales back to 2019 levels but the labour shortage, inflationary cost pressures and dropping consumer confidence make it extremely difficult for any business to achieve real-terms year-on-year growth at the moment and there is little prospect of a respite on the horizon.