Hospitality shifts down 76% due to coronavirus

The number of shifts currently available to workers in the UK hospitality industry has fallen by 76% compared to last month due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of shift available in the hospitality industry has taken a nosedive due to the coronavirus pandemic

The figure was calculated by Wagestream, a platform that allows workers to access their pay straight away, rather than at the end of the month.

It used aggregate data from multiple workforce management systems to compare the number of shifts available to staff on Sunday – two days after the Prime Minister told restaurants and pubs to close – with a month earlier.

Wagestream is able to see work patterns of 36,000 hospitality sector workers who would typically fill 120,000 shifts each week.

Many restaurants are still serving food to go

While restaurants are no longer able to offer a dine-in service, they have been allowed to continue to operate as delivery outlets offering dishes to go.

“The hospitality sector has been hit hard and everything possible needs to be done to help preserve its ability to bounce back when the pandemic loosens its grip on the economy,” said Peter Briffet, CEO of Wagestream.

“We would urge hospitality businesses to consider using Wagestream to ease their cash flow problems and help the sector’s workers cover their bills and expenses.

“The hospitality sector is one of the industries set for a huge boom when life starts to return to normal. It would be a crying shame if businesses were needlessly lost and unable to benefit when that time comes,” he added.

Meanwhile, on-trade analyst CGA has reported that like for like pub, bar and restaurant sales fell by 71% the week the government ordered all licensed premises to close down due to the coronavirus crisis.

Restaurant sales were down by 75% while bar sales took an 88% hit.

“Many pubs and restaurants had stayed open even with dwindling trade after Boris Johnson’s warning at the start of the week for people to avoid going out. The closure order last Friday then killed all business overnight,” said Phil Tate, CGA’s group chief executive.

The current nationwide lockdown means that only restaurants providing takeaway or delivery services can continue to operate. From next week CGA will be tracking those sales, which have spiked dramatically in the past few weeks.