Dutch hospitality sector has room to tackle staff shortages with better remuneration

There was talk of staff shortages in the catering sector even before the corona crisis, writes Martijn Mak (Amsterdam Bureau for Economics) in an article on the blog of the ESB journal. Figures imply that the sector is able to tackle these shortages itself. For example, wages in the Dutch catering industry have lagged behind those in the rest of the economy since 2010, while profit margins have increased and the number of catering establishments has risen sharply in recent years.

The government should be reluctant to intervene in the labor market to address staff shortages. In various sectors, employers themselves will be able to attract staff through better remuneration. Better remuneration may, however, curb the growth of companies and branches in the sector. This, however, is the result of a natural interaction between supply and demand.

Read the entire blog here (Dutch).