It's evidenced in the fact local bistros are being forced to close two nights a week, the waiter at a hot new restaurant doesn't know how to remove a cork, the restaurant-owning mum at school drop-off looks particularly harried.
It's the worst it's ever been, says Wes Lambert, chief executive of the Restaurant and Catering Industry Association. There are tens of thousands of open positions around the country, ranging from barista to head chef and everything in between.
Staffing was fraught before the pandemic. Australians tend to see hospitality as a stopgap rather than a career and reputational issues around workplace compliance haven't helped attract candidates. There's no getting around the fact that restaurant hours are anti-social. The work is physical and hard on the body. All these factors can impinge upon mental wellbeing.
But a constant inflow of international workers ensured continuity: students, backpackers and skilled sponsored workers kept pans sizzling, plates swooping and pots sudsing. COVID-19 put an end to that. Between December 2019 and May 2021, more than 660,000 temporary visa holders left Australia, many of them restaurant workers.
There are tens of thousands of open positions around the country, ranging from barista to head chef and everything in between.
Wes Lambert
None returned, and even though the borders will reopen to non-Australians from December 1, no one knows how many internationals will rush to come to Australia. Those who did remain often took jobs in other industries.
It's dire but it can't be terminal. We love eating out too much. The hospitality industry has always been big on problem solving and we've seen over the past 20 months how nimble and innovative restaurants can be. So what are the solutions to the biggest workforce shortage the industry has ever seen?
Train beginners
In the 28 years that Barb Dight has been running Cicciolina in St Kilda she's always employed international students to wash dishes. When her latest crop moved onto work in their field of study, Dight posted on neighbourhood Facebook groups. I had so many great kids apply, she says. Most of them haven't had part-time jobs for two years. Sport isn't really happening. No one is going on big trips. They're an untapped resource. She's shortened shifts to accommodate young, inexperienced workers. We are paying them a bit above the award to retain them and we are training them up so some might move onto other roles, she says. They are hard workers and they are lovely.
