Hospitality industry sees job numbers plummet, but applications soar

The latest job market data from CV-Library has revealed that job vacancies plummeted by 42.1% in the hospitality sector in April.

The study looks at job market activity throughout April, comparing the findings with the previous month and year to build an understanding of how the UK job market is fairing right now. The data shows that hospitality job numbers also dropped by 64.2% month-on-month due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, said: “We’re trying to support UK businesses as much as possible right now, but everyone is feeling the financial effects of the current crisis. Thousands of companies have put a pause on their hiring plans until there’s more certainty in the market and the pandemic is having a significant impact on the hospitality industry.

“All we can do now is prepare for the recovery and hope that business confidence picks up over the next few months when lockdown restrictions eventually ease. Unfortunately, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel at this stage, especially as we move into the thick of the spring/summer period, which tends to be quieter for hiring anyway.”

Despite this dip, with more Brits being out of work or placed on furlough in April, CV-Library’s data shows that applications for hospitality roles soared by 88.8% year-on-year.

In addition to these findings, the job board also explored the application to job ratio on its site and found that this increased by 226.1% in the hospitality industry in April, compared to the previous year.

It added this means there is more competition amongst candidates for the roles that are available. In fact, CV-Library’s data shows that there was an average of 55.1 applications per hospitality role in April 2020, as opposed to just 16.9 in April 2019.

Biggins added: “Unfortunately, organisations have had to make some tough decisions over the past six weeks, with ONS figures revealing that two thirds of businesses have placed staff on furlough. We do expect application figures to pick up even further in the coming months and clearly there is already increased competition for jobs.”