UK ‘jobs miracle’ turns into employers’ nightmare

Job vacancies seem to come ten-a-penny in Keswick, a tourist town in England's picturesque Lake District, as the hospitality sector cries out for staff -- shortages which are a direct result, critics say, of the coronavirus pandemic and of Brexit.

"Two live-in chef positions available. Excellent rates of pay," reads one advert in a restaurant window.

"Hiring. No experience needed," says another in a fish-and-chip shop.

Britain's ruling Conservative party claims to have engineered a  "jobs miracle" since coming to power in 2010, with the national unemployment rate currently standing at 3.8 per cent, the lowest level in almost 50 years.

That is, in fact, better than the International Labour Organisation's definition of  "full employment" -- a jobless rate of five per cent.

But for Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies, while the current situation in Britain may be  "the best context in 20 years for workers", it is not good for the economy as a whole.

The shortage of workers may be  "leading to pay growth and some improvements in employment terms, but it doesn't help the economy at all," he said.

If companies are unable to fulfil their potential then profits and overall growth take a hit, he argued.

Indeed, Britain is set to have the lowest economic growth of any Group of Seven country, projections show.

Back in Keswick, Alison Lamont, the 60-year-old co-owner of the Relish cafe, does not have a minute to spare as she juggles serving with taking payments.

Since Covid lockdowns were lifted, the small eatery has switched to takeaway services only. There is simply no  "time for clearing the tables", says Lamont.

Despite attempts to recruit via social media or simply by word-of-mouth, she cannot find the extra staff needed to run the cafe properly. Young people  "all want to be influencers or work from home", Lamont complains.

"The main impact on family life is that we don't get weekends together and no time away, we have to work and work and work," she tells AFP, as her husband, who prepares the food upstairs, runs down to bring a sandwich.

Lamont, welcoming each customer like an old friend, says she bought the cafe with her husband around a year before Covid struck. She struggles to sleep some nights and sees no end to the current situation. "You can only do this for so long," Lamont says.

Further up the street, the restaurant at George Hotel was forced to shut for three-and-a-half months this year because it had no chef, costing the business 30,000 ($35,000) a week, a situation that is seen again and again across the UK.

The owner of a London beauty salon told AFP she had even resorted to using a headhunter, typically used for recruiting senior management positions, to find a beautician -- with no luck so far.

In other sectors, airlines such as British Airways and EasyJet are struggling to re-hire the staff they laid off in their thousands at the start of the pandemic.

The result: mass flight cancellations and a situation that is only set to become worse during the upcoming summer holiday season.

The reasons for Britain's current labour market woes are widely blamed on the country's decision to quit the European Union and on the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

"Since the economy reopened... the demand for workers is much higher than the job seekers, especially in low-paid, low-skill sectors" such as cleaning, construction, distribution and warehousing, said Jack Kennedy, UK economist at recruitment group Indeed.