This year will be a record in tourist occupancy, with the forecast that 50 million tourists will arrive in the three summer months, and with the staff employed that will reach 280,000 people. However, this coexists with the loss of jobs in the sector in the last four years. Especially notable is the drop of 32,000 salaried jobs among waiters and 3,000 among cooks in relation to the first quarter of 2019, according to the CC.OO report. which analyzes tourism activity in 2022 and forecasts for 2023.
For the union, the cause of this lack of jobs is that working conditions are still not at acceptable quality levels. "The lack of professionals that is alleged is not because people do not want to work in the sector, what they do not want is to work in these salary and working conditions" has stated the Secretary of Institutional Relations and Communication of CC.OO., Marcos Gutiérrez, who has also placed the drop in students in hospitality and tourism schools as a worrying element. One more symptom that the sector is less and less attractive to workers.
For the union, the reason is clear. You have to look for it in precarious working conditions, to which is added the difficulty of housing workers in the most stressed areas, such as the Balearic Islands. These are factors that add up to explain how an increase in activity can be combined with a decrease in certain jobs.
What CCOO has done. is to prepare a list of the 15 occupations that register the largest number of personnel in the hotel sector. They add up to more than 90% of total employment in the sector and comparing the end of 2022 with the pre-pandemic, it represents a reduction of almost 55,000 people, which represents approximately 3% of total occupation in the hospitality industry. In addition to the 32,000 salaried jobs lost among waiters and 3,000 cooks, 13,000 waiters and cooks who own the business have also been lost. On the other hand, where jobs are increasing are monitors, drivers, travel agency staff and hotel receptionists.
Where more employment has been lost is in the restoration. "We link it to working conditions. In restaurants, the conditions are harsher and more precarious," said Chema Martínez, General Secretary of CC.OO Services, to add that "they are waiters, cooks and managers, people with superior responsibility who migrate to other sectors because they are paid more”
In the analysis broken down by quality segments, the report indicates that sun and beach tourism shows a stronger recovery after the pandemic than business tourism, that is, meetings and congresses, which is especially important for the cities of Madrid. and Barcelona. This type of tourism generated a direct economic impact of more than 7,000 million euros in 2019, and has the advantage that the volume of spending by business tourists is 30% higher than that of vacation tourists.
