UH study finds hospitality workers laid off in pandemic are discouraged to come back to work

The University of Houston found that there are a large number of workers in the hospitality industry who were either furloughed or laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic who are not planning to come back to the industry due to their anger from the situation.

According to a report by the University of Houston in December 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that almost 8 million hospitality jobs were lost at the beginning months of the pandemic. This made the industry one of the most damaged by the pandemic. This was due to travel and dining being put on hold, which hurt those in the lodging, food and beverage aspects of the business.

“I don’t think any industry was prepared, but the hospitality industry really wasn’t prepared,” said Juan Madera, the Curtis L. Carlson endowed professor at Hilton College. “Their solution to cutting costs and saving the business was to let people go and then try to rehire them when it was over.”

While the job market has improved three years later, with the recovery getting to a better spot than before the pandemic, the hospitality industry has continued its struggle. There were still about 1.3 million jobs available last July, the report stated. Madera and Hilton College teaching fellow Iuliana Popa worked with a pair of former students to research the reasons and published the study in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

The main focuses were anger and fear. Data was taken from 300 online surveys, generating more than 100 responses. The participants in the study were hospitality students and those who currently worked in the hospitality industry, those who left and those who are looking into joining the field. The results showed that if skilled workers leave the industry during a major negative event like the pandemic, it is hard for businesses to find the right employees during the rehiring process. This is already problematic in the hospitality business, with Popa saying due to hours, the demand of the job and pay. He said being laid off was “kind of the last straw.”

Recommendations by Madera and Popa’s team included offering higher wages and better benefits, while also working to protect the health of workers and building their trust.