Hostelry sector looks abroad for staff

The Balearic hostelry and restaurant sector is 800 employees short of the necessary number to ensure that minimum services are covered. The Spanish Hostelry and Restaurant Federation yesterday announced that there are nearly 17'000 vacancies in the sector which need to be filled and that the situation is causing growing concerns as the summer season draws near. The federation's president, Pedro Galindo, said yesterday that some establishments can been forced to close because of a lack of staff and people willing to join the hostelry sector. In contrast to the official unemployment figures, the federation has recently canvassed all of its members - there is only one region of Spain, Extremadura, which is not experiencing a problem in recruiting staff. Galindo said that the federation warned of the growing lack of interest in the hostelry sector some two years ago, calling on central government to co-operate in immigrant training and recruitment programmes and more help from the unions and the unemployment offices in managing the lists of people out of work. Galindo said that this year's quota of immigrants only includes 23 people qualified to work in the hostelry sector. Galindo said that there is not enough control over immigrants coming to Spain, there are some 78'000 immigrants who have applied to the employment office for work, but no consideration is given to which areas of business and commerce, such as the hostelry and restaurant sector, are short of staff.