Up to “200,000 vacancies” in the catering and hotel industry: Thierry Marx sounds the alarm

“The whole of France is in need,” said chef Thierry Marx, this Monday, April 1, regarding labor needs in the restaurant and hotel industry. Guest of the Franceinfo morning show, the president of the Umih employers' union (Union of Hotel Trades and Industries) did not hide his concern about the needs, particularly during the Olympics. “We will be in tension, even in Paris. Usually, we are a little less tense because the market is a little weaker in July and August, this is normal in a city like Paris and other large cities. But overall for the period of the Games, we are still missing staff,” he explained.

How much ? “I don’t have the exact number,” replied the starred chef, who assures that “we still have 200,000 positions to fill across the whole of France”, particularly seasonal ones. And added: “Today, the whole of France is lacking, so you can imagine that Paris is the same thing.” The fault of too low remuneration? “No, we are one of the professions for which we have increased salaries by 16%. It’s still not nothing,” defended Thierry Marx. The chef explains the recruitment problems by several factors, in particular by “the decline in demographics”, “the housing problem” for seasonal workers as well as by “the excessively high taxation of labor” in France.

Also read: Thierry Marx: “France is not doing enough to ensure the future of its tourism”

“Out of 100,000 euros of turnover for a small cafe owner, he only has 2,000 euros left at the end of the month,” assures the professional, who thinks that it is “not a cyclical problem, but of a structural problem” linked to “a mechanism that no longer works”. He even mentions a “deregulation of labor costs” and an “Uberization” of his profession, to the extent that more and more employees “want to be paid gross rather than being tied to a company.” And the consequence is very concrete according to him, with staff who prefer to be self-employed, rather than accepting a permanent contract. A choice made “to not depend on an employer, to also plan one's life, but also to say to oneself “with my gross salary, I will operate as I want my budget””.

“And there, there is a fundamental subject on the fact that someone, when they enter our profession, will be paid between 1800 and 2000 euros, they will only have 1400 euros left (net, editor’s note). We can explain to him that “it’s national solidarity” and that “it works like that” except that today, it doesn’t allow him to find housing, it doesn’t allow him mobility, and the 10th of the month , he is in the open,” reasons the great Parisian chef. And to conclude: “It doesn’t just concern the hotel and restaurant professions, it concerns all professions. Which means that we have a structural problem and not a cyclical one.”