DEPUTY chairman of Chukka Caribbean John Byles said the country could consider adopting a programme similar to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) used in the United Kingdom to alleviate chronic shortages in the hospitality sector. Byles outlined that a similar programme could help bring labour to the country when 4,000 hotel rooms scheduled for opening in the next two years come on stream.

“If you look at what is happening globally, hospitality is having a shortage of labour overall. So, many of our trained staff, and I am not just talking about Chukka, I am talking about the tourism sector generally, many of our staff are being poached to go overseas. And then we also have the need to find people to service the additional 4,000 hotel rooms that are coming on in the next two years.”

The SOL programme allows employers to bring in workers from overseas to fill jobs that cannot be filled by British workers. The SOL includes a number of hospitality occupations, such as chefs, hotel managers, and waiters. The SOL has been successful in helping to address the UK’s hospitality labour shortage.

Byles, pointing to Jamaica’s historically low 4.5 per cent unemployment, said, “It is a good thing, but comes with challenges that we have to look at and plan for.”

“We must keep the service levels at the world standard because that’s how more people will come to Jamaica. I can tell you, America is giving the red carpet for the workers who need to come for the hospitality industry as are many other countries. We need to do the same thing, in my opinion, at least for the hotels which are to open up, the 4000 rooms, because we must keep our service levels at the highest in order to keep the service level at first-class standards as well as demonstrate opportunities for training.”

He argued that allowing new hotels to import labour can benefit the local economy.

“When new hotels open, they create jobs, earn more foreign exchange and generate more income in all the linkages, boosting the economy. However, if new hotels are unable to find workers to fill their jobs, they may not be able to open or operate successfully and will pull from other hospitality businesses as well as other productive sectors, hurting the ability to enjoy optimal growth and hurting the quality of overall productivity and service levels for future employment. This will have a negative impact on the growth trajectory at this inflection point resulting from our prudent fiscal management.”

He said by allowing new hotels and other productive sectors to import labour, Jamaica can protect and grow job opportunities at all levels for local workers. He added that the country must also seriously look at programmes to reduce the number of students dropping out of high school and tailor programmes for schools to produce workers needed by industry in Jamaica.

“Western Jamaica is having a 14 per cent high school dropout ratio vs national average of 8 per cent, which is our real brain drain affecting further growth and development. Turning this around will require attracting them into highly skilled, higher paying jobs going forward. We are going to need the skill sets that we’ve lost from the hospitality industry, like culinary skills, bar tenders, waiters, lifeguards etc. These are all areas that the hotel sector is grappling to try and keep or they are working with inadequate resources.”

He said the situation is likely to get worse.

“Jamaicans make the best hospitality team members. So I don’t believe that the foreign recruitment is going to stop and we all need to realise that. I have spoken to the cruise lines and they say the customer facing Jamaicans are the best, so we have to know that our people are always going to be in demand. So let’s keep the service level up and find ways to show our students the careers that are available in the tourism industry so that we can attract more into the space.”

The global hospitality industry is facing a severe labour shortage. A 2022 report by the World Travel & Tourism Council found that the global tourism industry will need to create 126 million new jobs in the next decade to meet the growing demand. The hospitality labour shortage is particularly acute in developed countries. In the United States, for example, the unemployment rate in the hospitality industry is at an all-time low of 3.4 per cent.