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Hospitality and leisure is the fourth largest employer in the country with 3.2 million permanent staff and a further 1.4 million temporary, contract or agency positions.
Hospitality and leisure is the fourth largest employer in the country with 3.2 million permanent staff and a further 1.4 million temporary, contract or agency positions. The fast-growing nature of the sector mean it’s important to keep up with the latest trends, to ensure competitive edge is maintained.
In the next 12 months, mobile apps will keep on influencing the industry, as they have for the last few years.
By 2025, an extra 130,000 new hotel rooms has been promised by the government in a new tourism sector deal, in consultation with the hospitality industry; this will bring in an extra 9 million visitors a year to the UK. A growing industry will always bring plenty of opportunities for new recruits.
The Reed Hospitality & Leisure Salary Guide 2020 highlights some of the key trends in the UK hospitality and leisure sectors over the last 12 months – and looks to give insight into what patterns may be emerging in 2021.
Using data gathered from 2.7 million jobs posted last year on reed.co.uk, the hospitality and leisure guide provides a comprehensive picture for some of the most prominent jobs in the industry.
It looks at the hospitality and leisure jobs across 12 UK regions and features wage information on roles such as head chefs, restaurant managers, assistant managers, hotel managers and executive chefs, as well as many more.
Overall salaries in the industry are continuing to grow, with average salary growth of 6.1% across the UK this year.
In East Anglia the role of operations director has seen average salaries increase 9%, and pay for a duty manager in the East Midlands has gone up 9.4%.
London has seen a smaller average salary growth of just 2.7%, particularly compared with that of 12% in the North East.
Average wages for restaurant managers in the North West have gone up 8.1% compared to last year, and in Northern Ireland hotel managers are earning 9.2% more than they were.
Operations managers in Scotland see an average pay increase of 10.7%, while housekeeping supervisors in the South East are on average receiving 6.5% less than last year.
The South West has seen a steady rise in salaries and, while slightly down in comparison to the national average, salaries have gone up overall by 4.2%.
Commis chefs in Wales are earning 10.2% more on average than last year, and in the West Midlands sous chef salaries are also higher (13.1%). Finally, in Yorkshire and Humberside, chef de partie roles have seen an increase of 10.5% in average pay.
Despite the rise of zero-hour contracts and the gig-economy contributing to an image problem for the industry, the reality for UK hospitality staff is usually one of improved benefits and working conditions. There is an increased emphasis on the overall ‘employee experience’ and skills development rather than just on starting salary or hourly rate. The most successful organisations are likely to be the ones that offer their workforce flexibility, work-life balance and development rather than just a competitive salary.
