One in six new jobs in the year were generated by the hospitality industry, which equates to an increase of 133,000 new roles driving total employment in hospitality up 6% to nearly 2.5m.
Nicholls said: “Vacancies in the sector remain high however, close to double pre-pandemic levels. At the same time vacancies across the economy are 20% higher than a year ago, demonstrating how inherent problems in the labour market remain and how difficult a situation employers in the sector find themselves.
“In order to ease this workforce shortage, we need to work with the Government on long term solutions such as an employment and skills strategy and to ensure that Government schemes are open to all sectors – hospitality is currently excluded from initiatives such as skills bootcamps, for example.
“All this will be for naught, however, if the sector doesn’t receive some short term support. On top of the energy price cap we need targeted support, such as VAT cut to 10% and a business rates holiday, to sustain businesses big and small and protect jobs this winter.”