THE one problem you might not expect businesses to have at the moment is a shortage of staff.

After all, there are more than twice as many people locally unemployed and claiming benefits than there were last year.

But the hospitality industry in particular is finding labour extremely hard to come by.

The trade body UK Hospitality has warned that thousands of roles are going vacant.

In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, the trade body BH Area Hospitality Association (BAHA) says hoteliers are struggling to fill a host of roles, from chefs to night porters and from managers to waiting staff.

Andy Lennox, who founded the pressure group Wonky Table to represent the industry, describes the situation as “very difficult across the board”.

“Wages are going through the roof because there’s massive demand,” he said.

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the industry,” he added. But it is a strain on businesses which have fought to stay afloat during months of closures or restrictions.

Many roles are attracting 30-40 per cent higher wages than before the pandemic, he said.

A chef de partie – a cook in charge of a particular area of production – would previously have made £9-£10 an hour and might now command £20 an hour.

So how did we come to face both high unemployment and a skills shortage?

Many hospitality businesses have tried to keep their teams together – and look out for their welfare – by putting them on furlough rather than making them redundant.

Brexit has ended the free movement of labour from mainland Europe in an industry that relied heavily on staff from overseas. And anyway, Covid restrictions have made it more difficult to travel.

The national trade body UK Hospitality has said uncertainty is a factor in putting people off going for hospitality jobs.

It wanted the government to stick with its plan to lift social restrictions on June 21, in order to give potential workers a signal that the job was secure.

“We don’t have the youngsters, because those youngsters who finished school who would historically have gone into hospitality jobs didn’t go into hospitality last year,” said Andy Lennox.

“It’s really difficult to find the young people who need their first job.

“You would think with so many unemployed, you would think you would be sifting through a lot of CVs but we’re not.”

National brands were using their spending power to pay bigger wages, he said – but only for the season.

“They’re hiring because they need them now so they’re willing to spend the money but that will mean you’re only going to have a job for three or four months,” he said.

BAHA says Dorset shares the same challenge as the rest of the UK, with Covid, furlough and Brexit combining to reduce the available pool of labour.

It does, however, present an opportunity to sell the positive side of careers in hospitality – an industry which often allows its brightest people to rise rapidly to good positions.

BAHA has set up a jobs page where its member hotels can submit their vacancies.

Its chair, Tim Seward, said: "As an association, we are working on various projects which will show that working in hospitality can be a great career.”

In the meantime, the customer may notice a difference – and may have to be patient.

Hospitality businesses are part of a lengthy supply chain that can start with farmers or fishermen and go all the way down to the contractors who take away the waste.

When jobs are left vacant, any part of the chain can go wrong.

Andy Lennox said he had noticed an increasing tendency for diners to be angry when food was slower to arrive or when a dish was off the menu because an ingredient had not been delivered.

“People need to be patient and need to understand wait times are going to be longer anywhere you go,” he said.

“Our staff are doing the best they can do and putting in longer hours than potentially they would normally because staffing is low – and they’re human beings.”