There is a number that keeps coming up in conversations with the hoteliers and restaurant owners we work with, and it is not revenue per available room or food cost percentage. It is the number of positions they cannot fill. This summer, that anecdote has hard data behind it. According to a roadmap published in January 2026 by HOTREC, the association representing Europe's hotels, restaurants and cafes, the sector is missing roughly one in ten of the workers it needs.
Eurostat's job vacancy figures tell the same story from another angle. At the end of 2025, accommodation and food service showed one of the higher vacancy rates of any sector in the euro area, at around 2.5 percent. Behind the percentages are dining rooms running short staffed on a Saturday night, hotel floors kept closed because there is nobody to service them, and managers working double shifts to cover the gaps.
The shortage has a job title
Look closer and the gap is not evenly spread. The same HOTREC roadmap reports that cooks are officially classified as a shortage occupation in 22 European countries, with chefs and waiters each on the shortage list in 17. These are exactly the roles Italian hospitality schools and kitchens have been training for generations.
The national numbers vary widely. Italy counts around 35,000 unfilled hospitality positions, roughly 3 percent of its workforce in the sector. France is missing somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 workers. In Greece the gap reaches about 14 percent of all roles, and the United Kingdom is short around 73,000 people. Different markets, same conclusion: everyone is fishing in the same shrinking pool.
What this means if you run a hotel or restaurant
The first implication is uncomfortable but worth saying plainly. Posting a job ad and waiting is no longer a strategy. When ten percent of the workforce is missing across an entire continent, the employers who win are the ones who go where the talent actually is, move quickly when they find it, and offer something worth staying for.
That is why more operators are building structured international pipelines instead of improvising each season. A vetted candidate from Italy who arrives with the right paperwork, realistic expectations and a genuine hospitality background is worth far more than a stack of unread applications. We have written before about what turnover really costs, and the shortage only raises those stakes.
What this means if you work in hospitality
If you are an Italian chef, cook, waiter or hotel professional, the same numbers read very differently. Your skills are formally recognised as scarce across most of Europe, and demand in the United States tells a similar story. That scarcity is leverage. It means you can afford to choose employers who invest in their people, and it means doors that once felt closed, including visa pathways, are being actively held open by governments trying to fill these gaps.
Our work sits exactly at this intersection. Every week we talk to employers who cannot find people, and to talented people who do not know how wanted they are. The staffing gap is real, but so is the bridge across it.
Data referenced from HOTREC's January 2026 skills and labour shortages roadmap and Eurostat job vacancy statistics.
One in ten positions is empty. That is a problem for the industry, and an open door for the people ready to walk through it.