Press Release, London, 5th February 2009
The number of people searching for second jobs within the hotel, hospitality and catering industry has increased by a massive 40% over the last 6 months alone.
Berkeley Scott, specialists in hospitality recruitment, has seen this exponential rise in candidate applications with people looking to work for events companies and hotels in order to top up on their income.
Mark Darby, Managing Director of Berkeley Scott commented "people are turning to the hospitality and leisure industry because they perceive it as a marketplace where skills can be learned quickly and where core working hours are outside of those of their normal 'day job'."
Only last week a job advertised by Berkeley Scott for 20 breakfast waiters at a major London hotel prompted over 400 applications, six times as many as this time last year. The job was paying minimum wage, and of these applications, almost two-thirds were from 'second jobbers.'
"What is interesting" explains Darby "is that it is not just one particular gender or age range that are applying and it is not confined to people who are on lower salary jobs. The credit crunch is hitting many people hard; only last week a Food and Beverage manager at a major London hotel enquired about some casual weekend work - up until January that would have been unprecedented."
A further indication as to how the job market is changing is in the number of applications for jobs at minimum wage level. The number of British nationals applying to the minimum wage positions that Berkeley Scott has been advertising has risen from 21% of all applications to 37%; yet another indication of how the credit crunch is affecting job applications.
