More job vacancies reported than registered unemployed

The number of job vacancies reported by hotels for the year 2022 was almost three times the monthly average of the number of registered unemployed persons, Labour and Social Insurance Minister Kyriakos Koushos said at a conference on the "Staff shortage in the field of hospitality".

The Minister's address at the Conference held on Friday in Nicosia was delivered by the Ministry's Permanent Secretary Andreas Zachariades.

"Specifically, the number of job vacancies in 2022 was 7,689 while the average number of registered unemployed in the economic activity of hotels rose for 2022 to 2,650 people. The corresponding figures in 2021 were 6,915 job vacancies and 4,622 unemployed,” he said.

At the same time, he mentioned that the fact that the sector in Cyprus is regulated is increasing its attractiveness for employees. He also noted that the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, achieved the renewal of the 2019-2022 collective agreement for the sector until the end of 2023, an important intervention, as he said, as the sector was greatly affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

Addressing the Conference, the Deputy Minister of Tourism Savvas Perdios, said that the main priority of the medium-term action plan of the National Tourism Strategy 2023-2025, was human resources.

"If we want to talk about attracting more people to this sector, it is good to start with the rebranding of the hospitality sector," he said.

He also noted that tourism and hospitality in general, do not only have to do with hotels or restaurants but that the scope is very wide. As he said, the hospitality sector should be promoted in the right way, with human resources being the main priority through the Medium-term Action Plan of the National Tourism Strategy 2023 - 2025.

Speaking at the conference, the Deputy Minister of Tourism of Greece, Sofia Zacharaki, referred to the actions of the Greek Government for "teaching of hospitality". Among other things, she mentioned that Greece's effort is to strengthen the tourism education structures, targeting younger people.

She also referred to the modernizations of internships in tourism and the following high rates of employment, as well as to a tourism education course that was launched in Greece's primary schools. Finally, she mentioned that a Tourism Academy is expected to operate soon.