Three years ago, Italy's hospitality sector was short roughly 250,000 workers. That gap has narrowed to about 35,000 unfilled positions today, a drop of more than 85 percent in under three years. We think that number deserves more attention than it usually gets, because it says something real about where the industry is actually headed.
The figures come from a January 2026 roadmap published by HOTREC, the association representing hotels, restaurants and cafes across Europe. Looked at continent wide, hospitality now employs about 10 million people across the EU and is still missing roughly 10 percent of the workforce it needs, though that average hides enormous variation. Countries including Portugal, Spain, Greece, Romania and Czechia are reporting 14 to 25 percent of positions unfilled, while Italy, once among the most strained markets in Europe, has pulled far ahead of that pack.
What Changed
No single policy explains the shift. HOTREC's own analysis points to several things moving at once: a hospitality training system that keeps producing qualified graduates, employers investing more seriously in how they present career paths, and, increasingly, structured partnerships that bring trained workers in from outside the EU. The report highlights Italy's cooperation with Tunisia as one example, a bilateral project between the two countries' labor ministries that trains Tunisian candidates specifically for roles in Italian hospitality before they ever board a flight. It is modest in absolute numbers, but it is a working template for something bigger: shortages close fastest when training and mobility are designed together, not bolted on after the fact.
Faster Paths Across Borders
The mobility side of that equation is getting real structural support. The EU's revised Single Permit Directive is cutting the standard timeline for a combined work and residence permit from 120 days down to 90, and HOTREC is pushing member states to treat that new deadline as a floor rather than a ceiling. Alongside it, the bloc is building Talent Partnerships with countries including Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh, aiming to turn ad hoc hiring into something closer to a standing pipeline. None of this removes the paperwork. It just means the paperwork increasingly comes with a predictable end date, which is most of what employers and candidates actually want from it.
That predictability is exactly the terrain we work in every day. Our recruitment division spends its time on both sides of this equation, helping hotels and restaurants abroad find hospitality professionals trained in Italy, and walking candidates and employers through the nulla osta and visa steps that turn a signed offer into an actual start date. Numbers like the ones in this report are the reason that work keeps getting more interesting rather than more routine. The gap is closing, and the hiring that fills it is only getting better organized.
Data referenced from HOTREC's January 2026 report, Skills and Labour Shortages: A Roadmap for Action.
A labor shortage that is shrinking is still a shortage worth solving well, and that is the part of the story we get to work on.