UK restaurants are facing a labour shortage that shows few signs of abating. The accommodation and food service sector saw the largest year-over-year employee decline of any UK industry — down 2.7% as of late 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) — and tens of thousands of roles remain unfilled. With Brexit cutting off the pipeline of EU workers and post-pandemic changes reshaping employee expectations, restaurant leaders must rethink how they attract, retain and manage staff. This article explores the root causes of the worker shortage, its impacts on service and profitability, and 15 strategies for building a more resilient workforce.
The State of the Restaurant Workforce in 2026
The UK restaurant and hospitality sector continues to grapple with significant staffing shortfalls. Approximately 84,000 jobs were vacant across the hospitality sector from January to March 2025 — a modest improvement from the 107,000 vacancies in the same period a year prior, but still a considerable gap.
A reduction in migrant workers following Brexit has been a major contributor to these staffing issues. The proportion of hospitality staff from abroad fell from roughly 25% before Brexit to just 12% in 2024, according to the chief executive of the trade association UK Hospitality. That loss, combined with the wave of workers who left the industry during the pandemic and never returned, created a talent drain from which the sector has yet to recover. Even with workarounds such as adding chefs to the skilled worker visa list, immigration rules have raised salary thresholds and administrative hurdles, suppressing overseas recruitment.
Meanwhile, restaurants must compete with other industries for a limited domestic workforce. Although unemployment has risen to 5.1% as of late 2025, the labour market remains competitive, and restaurants must vie with other industries for staff. To attract and retain employees, UK restaurants have raised pay significantly; hospitality wages were up approximately 16.6% year-on-year by late 2025. These pay rises, along with enhanced training and apprenticeship programmes, have helped restaurants chip away at vacancies, but the resulting higher labour costs also squeeze profit margins.
Key Takeaways
- Many UK restaurants are operating below capacity due to staffing shortfalls.
- In addition to the perennial challenges of retaining workers in a high-turnover industry, Brexit has further reduced the available talent pool.
- Labour shortages directly harm customer experience in the form of longer wait times and declining service quality.
- Restaurants are responding by raising wages, rethinking schedules, investing in culture, cross-training staff and using technology — including HRMS software — to do more with fewer people.
Restaurant Labour Shortages Explained
A restaurant labour shortage occurs when employers cannot find enough workers to fill the roles needed to run at full capacity. Restaurants are particularly vulnerable to this problem. The work is physical, the hours are often antisocial — evenings, weekends, holidays — and the industry has historically relied on two labour pools that have since shrunk: young and transient workers, and migrants. The UK hospitality industry lost nearly 200,000 international workers between 2019 and 2021, including approximately 120,000 EU workers, according to analysis of ONS data. Unlike office-based roles, restaurant jobs can’t go remote, and unlike warehousing or retail, they offer less predictable scheduling. That combination makes recruiting and retention harder than in most sectors facing similar shortages.
What's Causing Restaurant Labour Shortages?
A variety of economic and social factors have converged to cause labour shortfalls — some longstanding, others more recent. Understanding these trends can help operators develop targeted solutions.
- Competition with other industries and the gig economy: Hospitality’s historically lower wages and shift work make it a harder sell compared to attractive alternatives. Gig work offers more flexibility; retail and warehousing often pay comparably but with more favourable hours.
- After-effects of the pandemic: Many workers who left hospitality during COVID-19 lockdowns have since reskilled, retired or settled into other industries. They’re likely not coming back, and the pipeline of EU workers who once filled gaps has been cut off by post-Brexit visa rules.
- High employee turnover: Even when restaurants do hire, keeping staff is a challenge. Hospitality has the highest employee turnover rate of any UK sector — 52% — exacerbating the sector’s labour gap. Burnout is also common, with 76% of hospitality workers experiencing mental health challenges during their careers.
- Shifts in customer and employee expectations: Customers expect faster, more personalised service, which requires skilled, engaged staff. But employee expectations have shifted too: workers increasingly want work-life balance, recognition and career development. Younger workers in particular leave quickly if they don’t find them.
Impacts of Labour Shortages on the Restaurant Sector
The impacts of labour shortages don’t stay contained, they compound. Understaffing strains the employees who remain, which drives burnout and turnover, which makes the shortage worse. Reduced capacity means lost revenue, leaving less room to raise wages or invest in staff. For many restaurants, it’s become a vicious cycle. Restaurant operators who recognise these effects can better prioritise mitigation strategies.
- Reduction in service quality: When restaurants are understaffed, food takes longer to arrive, tables are not cleared promptly and queues grow. Half of UK hospitality managers report longer customer wait times as a direct result of shortages, according to a 2024 Axonify survey, and 41% note a decline in service quality.
- Increased staff burnout and turnover: Remaining employees must cover extra duties or work longer hours, leading to fatigue and burnout. Nearly three-quarters of hospitality managers cited increased workloads as a primary consequence of staffing shortfalls, according to the same survey, and 60% said it had driven higher turnover.
- Financial declines: Nearly half (45%) of hospitality companies have reduced trading hours or capacity, translating directly to lost revenue — an estimated £21 billion annually across the industry. Meanwhile, higher wages, overtime payments and staffing agency fees squeeze margins further, and those costs often get passed to customers through higher prices.
15 Ways to Overcome Restaurant Labour Shortages
Although the restaurant labour shortage won’t be solved overnight, restaurant leaders are finding practical ways to adapt. The strategies below span several categories — compensation and culture, operational adjustments, external partnerships and technology — and many are already being used by forward-thinking UK restaurants to alleviate staffing shortfalls and build a more resilient workforce. Notably, combining multiple strategies tends to yield better results than relying on any single approach.
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Offer competitive benefits and wages
One of the most direct ways to attract and retain staff in a tight labour market is to pay more and offer better perks. In fact, 52% of UK hospitality managers said they raised wages in 2024 to help address staff shortages, according to the Axonify survey. Beyond pay, restaurants are adding benefits once rare in the sector, such as performance bonuses, pension contributions, health insurance, paid holidays and sick pay, and staff meals or discounts.
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Foster a positive work environment
Work culture matters. A supportive, positive environment helps retain staff and attracts new hires through word-of-mouth. This involves promoting open communication, regularly recognising strong performance, encouraging teamwork and maintaining zero tolerance for harassment or bullying.
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Improve scheduling
Unpredictable or inflexible schedules are a leading reason restaurant workers quit. Companies can address this by giving staff advance notice of rotas — ideally at least two weeks ahead — and limiting last-minute changes. Flexible scheduling options, such as split shifts or self-scheduling, can widen the potential labour pool to include students, parents and those with other commitments.
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Cross-train staff
Teaching employees to perform multiple roles or duties rather than specialising in just one task gives restaurant managers greater flexibility to handle staffing gaps. If a location is short-handed on a given shift, a cross-trained employee can step in. Cross-training also provides variety and learning opportunities that can increase employee engagement and serve as stepping stones for career advancement.
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Provide opportunities for career advancement
A longstanding complaint among restaurant workers is that their jobs feel like dead-end roles with no clear path forward. By creating visible pathways for advancement — outlining how a server can progress to floor manager, for example — restaurants can retain ambitious employees. Supporting staff with training sessions, mentorship opportunities, or apprenticeship programmes demonstrates commitment to their professional development.
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Establish an employee incentive programme
Incentives and recognition programmes can help motivate staff and improve retention. These might include performance bonuses, profit-sharing schemes, staff competitions with prizes and even low-cost recognition options like “employee of the month” awards. The aim is to create a culture that recognises and celebrates effort. Employees who feel their hard work earns tangible rewards or heartfelt appreciation are more likely to stay.
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Reduce menu offerings
Simplifying the menu can be a smart strategy for coping with labour constraints. A shorter menu requires less labour to execute, both in the kitchen and front of house. Chefs can focus on mastering a core set of recipes, and servers have fewer items to memorise. Restaurant operators who focus on their most popular and profitable dishes — and cut items that complicate operations — often can maintain quality with fewer staff while accelerating service times.
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Standardise procedures
Creating standard operating procedures (SOPs) for restaurant tasks can mitigate the impact of inexperienced or reduced staff. When processes from opening routines to plating methods are documented, training new hires is faster and easier, and consistency improves — even when understaffed. Technology such as kitchen display systems with recipe prompts or POS systems that guide order entry can help cement these standards into daily operations.
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Calculate your labour costs
As the old adage goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Tracking labour costs as a percentage of sales — as well as financial metrics like sales per labour hour — can uncover inefficiencies and inform data-driven decisions about staffing. Benchmarking these figures can help managers balance staff levels with demand, avoiding both overstaffing during slow periods and understaffing during busy ones.
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Encourage work-life balance
If there’s one lesson from the labour crisis, it’s that the restaurant sector’s habit of long, often late-night hours must evolve. Encouraging healthier work-life balance — capping overtime, honouring day-off requests, rotating weekends off — can significantly improve retention, morale and wellbeing. Some restaurants are experimenting with four-day work weeks or adding mental health days to holiday allowances. Rested, happy staff perform at a higher level and treat customers better.
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Prioritise employee retention and satisfaction
Keeping the staff you have is far more cost-effective than hiring replacements. When you factor in recruitment, training time and lost productivity, replacing an employee can cost anywhere from 30% of their wages for entry-level roles to 200% for high performers, according to 2024 research by CultureAmp. With turnover rates as high as they are in restaurants, those costs add up fast. Regularly soliciting feedback from staff, addressing sources of dissatisfaction early and showing clear commitment to worker wellbeing all contribute to higher retention.
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Partner with a staffing agency
Sometimes, despite their best efforts, restaurants cannot find enough staff through direct channels. Staffing agencies can serve as a useful stopgap for filling short-term vacancies and dealing with seasonal peaks in demand. Agencies have access to a large pool of candidates and can provide temporary or permanent staff as necessary, while handling initial screening and payroll for those workers.
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Engage your local community
Tapping into the local area can help restaurants with both recruiting and building goodwill with their neighbours. Options include engaging with nearby schools, colleges or community centres to promote hospitality jobs; attending local job fairs; or implementing community referral programmes. Being active in the community — sponsoring local events or supporting charitable causes — can also raise a restaurant’s profile as a desirable place to work and build loyalty among staff and customers alike.
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Join an industry association
Industry associations such as UK Hospitality (representing the broader sector), the Sustainable Restaurant Association (for eco-focused businesses), the British Beer & Pub Association (for pubs) and regional groups like Scotland Food & Drink all provide valuable support for navigating the labour shortage. Membership provides access to networking opportunities, best practices, job boards, training programmes and advocacy efforts on issues like immigration policy and skills development. Participating in these associations can also signal to potential employees that a business is a serious, reputable employer.
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Use technology to increase efficiency
Technology is a powerful ally for restaurants short on staff. Table-ordering apps, self-service kiosks and QR code menus can reduce the number of servers required on the floor. Kitchen automation and high-quality equipment can speed up cooking and reduce labour requirements. In the back-office, ERP platforms with scheduling and forecasting tools help optimise rotas by predicting busy periods using historical sales data. Meanwhile, inventory management systems can track stock levels and automate ordering so managers can instead focus on training and customer service.
HRMS Software Can Help Address and Reduce Labour Shortages
Human resource management system (HRMS) software is designed to help restaurants get a clearer picture of their workforce and reduce the administrative burden on managers. NetSuite SuitePeople Human Resource Management System (opens in new tab) helps restaurants address labour shortages proactively by providing data and tools to make better decisions about hiring and retention. It brings HR and financial data into a single system, giving operators visibility into how workforce performance affects the bottom line. The system can also accelerate onboarding with checklists that help new hires get up to speed quickly. Employee development and engagement features — such as goal-setting, performance reviews and recognition tools — help restaurants keep staff engaged and identify top performers. And by automating payroll and holiday accruals, SuitePeople can also help restaurants reduce administrative errors and build trust with employees.
The UK restaurant labour shortage won't be solved quickly; it took years to develop and will take time to address. But by understanding the root causes — from Brexit’s impact to evolving employee expectations — restaurant leaders can respond more effectively. A combination of short-term steps (better scheduling, competitive pay, recognition programmes) and long-term changes (investing in culture, adopting technology, building community ties) can help restaurants stabilise their workforce and maintain the service levels their customers expect.
Restaurant Labour Shortage FAQs
Why are UK restaurants experiencing a labour shortage?
The UK restaurant labour shortage stems from several overlapping factors. The industry lost a large share of its workforce during COVID-19 and following Brexit, and has yet to fully recover. At the same time, restaurants face intense competition for workers from other industries. The sector’s traditionally lower pay and demanding work environments also make it difficult to attract and retain staff.
How does the restaurant labour shortage impact customers?
The restaurant labour shortage has a direct impact on customers in the forms of longer wait times, reduced operating hours, higher prices and fewer menu choices.
Why is it so challenging to find restaurant staff?
Restaurant work can be demanding, with long hours, physical strain, evening and weekend shifts, and high-pressure environments. Hospitality has historically relied on younger and transient workers, but those pools have shrunk. Brexit made it harder for EU workers to fill UK restaurant roles, and many experienced staff who left during COVID have not returned to the industry.
