Australia Hospitality sector in jeopardy due to staff crisis
Staff Shortages in South Australia are forcing hospitality operators to downsize businesses as consequent shutdowns have led workers to choose better and more secure employment opportunities. Business owners have been continually saying that the uncertainty of Covid-19 times has devastated their businesses. They are completely disarrayed, especially regarding how many staff they need. Labour Scarcity is a big crisis in the hospitality sector.
Although South Australians have been motivated by the statewide campaigns for going on holidays in their backyards, there are chances that these towns may see an influx of tourists. Given the reduced staff, the small town businesses will not be able to cater to a lot of tourists during the summer holidays. The plan is to reduce the size of their businesses to match the staffing. Other ways of operations will be looked into if the staff service is not enough to service all customers.
The agriculture industry will also see a huge competition to hire seasonal workers in the midst of a bumper harvest. 1,500 workers will be hired across SA and south-west Victoria by grain storage company Viterra by October this year. Hirings will also take place in Port Pirie, Crystal Brook and Booleroo in regional towns across the state. About 60 people would be needed to fill positions. Port Pirie operations manager Jack Tansley said that they would need 80-100 people at Wallaroo. They are expecting interstate people and overseas travellers for recruitments.
The region's federally-funded employment facilitator, Lisa Brock, said that there are many job vacancies from entry level jobs to skilled jobs to professional roles across many sectors. But the problem of staff shortage is so huge that they are forced to bring in unskilled people and train them.
She added that there is a lack of housing facilities in the region which is also causing a problem in bringing people to take on new job opportunities. Brock assured that this problem will be solved by hosting information sessions which they are collectively working to build. "There's no easy solution. There are a lot of different funding [opportunities] and resources available through the government." she said.