This National Day, the catering industry is booming, but why are many restaurants still unable to find chefs?

Since the recovery of catering in May, the chef industry has fallen into a vicious cycle of "chefs can't find jobs - restaurants can't recruit chefs".

This contradiction was particularly prominent during the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays that just passed.

Why is this?

Different from the "May Day", this National Day Golden Week is a real recovery under normalized epidemic prevention. Inter-provincial tourism is very popular. The National Day holiday *** received 637 million domestic tourists. The catering consumption driven by this is naturally not low.

According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on the 8th, the sales of key monitored enterprises in retail and catering during the eight-day holiday nationwide were approximately 1.6 trillion yuan, with average daily sales increasing by 4.9% compared with last year’s National Day Golden Week.

In addition, reunion banquets, wedding banquets, birthday banquets, and family and friend banquets that were postponed in the first half of the year are also held during this long holiday.

Tourism and banquets have become the main driving forces of the catering industry during the Double Festival holiday. Chefs in popular tourism cities are finally "busy" again, but some chefs feel that there are fewer diners.

“It’s so busy! There are 2-3 times more people!”

From the city’s lockdown to the lifting of lockdown and then to the National Day Golden Week welcoming many tourists, Wuhan’s A Feng finally experienced it again He felt like he was sweating profusely and busy in the kitchen, and his face was filled with joy.

Li Hongfei, who works as a wok maker in Miyun, Beijing, also made the same sound, "It's like spending eight spring and autumn years."

Li Hongfei said that although Miyun is relatively far from the city, However, due to the local attractions such as Miyun Reservoir and Gubei Water Town, it attracted many tourists from downtown Beijing and surrounding areas during the National Day Golden Week.

In addition to the catering consumption brought by tourism, the various banquets held together are also what keep chefs busy.

Also in Hubei, Xiao Jiang, who works as a wok maker in a four-star hotel in Jingzhou, served nearly 800 banquets during this double festival. On October 1st alone, there were two banquets. More than a hundred tables.

Xiao Jiang had to work overtime for four hours every day. In addition to eating, he also worked. However, the overtime pay plus bonus he received in the end was only more than 1,000 yuan. “I am tired but happy. It is not easy to make money this year. We have made back the lost months in the first half of the year.”

Even Chen Junliang in Suining, Sichuan, said that the daily business volume of the restaurant during this year’s holiday has returned to the same level as the daily business volume before this year’s Spring Festival. The sales volume is the same, that is, the turnover has returned to the pre-epidemic level. "We have fewer tourists here, but there are many banquets, and the kitchen staff is not enough, so we have to work overtime to get it out."

In contrast, some Chefs in non-popular tourist cities can clearly feel the decrease in customer flow and can only envy their colleagues.

Zhai Guizhong, who lives in Weifang, Shandong Province, believes that this is because the locals have gone out to travel. He sighed: "People who have spare money have gone out to travel, and most of the others stay at home and cook their own meals." There are no customers at all during the long holiday.”

Master Dai in Huizhou, Guangdong also knows this very well.

According to Master Dai, their shop mainly sells bulk orders, and the business has recovered well before the Double Festival. However, during the long holidays, locals went out to travel, and there were many fewer customers. “My friend’s hotel has banquets every day. It’s full. I heard he said it’s fully booked this October, and other restaurants that don’t do banquets don’t have many customers. I’m so envious of them.”

Some chefs also believe that there will be another banquet event at the end of this year. The timing is right, because restaurant companies are starting to recruit people again.

Huang Lijun, who also lives in Dongguan, Guangdong, said that during this year’s National Day Golden Week, many friends said that there were a lot fewer banquets in hotels. Even the number of banquets in his own hotel was one-third less than the same period last year. There are not many ordinary individual tourists either.

But unlike others, Huang Lijun is not worried about the cold National Day. Instead, he is very confident about the end of this year.

“Guangdong rarely holds “wines” on the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, so many people go out for travel. However, December is a good month, especially suitable for weddings, birthday banquets, etc. Our hotel There are already more than a thousand seats reserved, and I'm sure there will be more banquets." Huang Lijun bluntly said that his hotel has begun to prepare to recruit more chefs for the end of the year. "Hot business" prepare in advance.

Chen Junliang also told Red Kitchen Network that he saw many recruitment information before and after the National Day. “Some stores had too many layoffs due to previous layoffs, resulting in too few kitchen staff to accept large orders. , they are looking for people in a hurry; some stores are preparing for the New Year. After all, the catering industry across the country has almost stopped during the Spring Festival this year, and they will definitely have to "compensate" next year. "

No. It is difficult to see that the long holiday has played a huge role in promoting the recovery of catering. Driven by various tourism and banquets, many chefs have become busy, and many catering companies have been recruiting chefs since the National Day.

But have all the chefs who are still unemployed found jobs?

In fact, as early as before the National Day, many people posted in the chef group the need to recruit temporary workers, part-time workers and substitutes:

There are also people who are recruiting during the National Day. :

There are also some who are hiring after the National Day, and even said that "the craftsmanship is just average":

These phenomena are enough to show that many restaurants are indeed in a "labor shortage" dilemma .

The reason behind this is very simple, that is, too many chefs have been laid off due to the epidemic and have been forced to change careers.

In February this year, the catering industry began to resume work. In order to reduce costs, many catering companies drastically laid off employees, leaving only some "all-round" chefs. The laid-off chefs had no choice but to choose to make a living in other industries. .

Since most of the laid-off positions are medium and small-time workers such as loaders, chopping boards, serving dishes, and tail cookers, most of them are held by relatively young chefs, which increases their career change costs. Become very low-level and be able to quickly adapt to new industries and jobs.

As long as they change careers successfully, they are destined not to return to the chef industry in a short time, or even change careers to the end.

Li Hongfei said: "Due to the epidemic this year, many chefs have changed careers, and there are many around me."

Li Chengbo, the head chef of a hotel in Chongqing, also believes that originally This year, many people have changed careers due to the epidemic, and most of them are no longer willing to work in the kitchen after changing careers. "Young people's mindset is not like before, and they must rest during holidays."

When long holidays become a driver of catering consumption As a "catalyst", catering will naturally recover quickly, but those catering companies that are not fully equipped with back-house staff will be caught off guard and can only recruit people "on a temporary basis", even if it is to find someone to replace them.

However, most of the chefs who were laid off before have changed careers, and it is expected that catering companies cannot recruit people.

Kehongchu.com also discovered another phenomenon: even after the National Day, there are still chefs looking for jobs in major chef groups:

On the one hand, catering companies are facing rapid The recovery has resulted in a serious shortage of workers. On the other hand, there are chefs who still cannot find a job until mid-October.

Behind the seeming contradiction, in the final analysis, it is because of the mismatch between supply and demand.

Li Chengbo said that what is lacking during the National Day holiday are basic positions such as waiters, food delivery workers, and waiters, which do not require high technology and high labor costs.

Therefore, the wages offered by catering companies are not attractive.

In a group of chefs, Red Kitchen Network observed the latest local recruitment information in Chengdu. The opening is only 3,000 yuan, and the cutting board is only 4,000 yuan.

Even for woks and catering companies, most salaries are no more than 6,000 yuan. Even in Beijing, the salary is only 8,000 yuan.

It can be said that this is not much different from the salary of chefs ten years ago.

However, housing prices and commodity prices ten years ago are not the same as they are now. Such salary levels may be unacceptable to many unemployed chefs.

Just like Li Hongfei said: "Everything is more expensive now. If wages don't increase, there will definitely be fewer and fewer people working in this industry."

In Fushun, Liaoning Zong Yang judged that the reason why bosses still set wages so low despite the shortage of people is because they always believe that there is no shortage of people in these positions. "Whether you want to do it or not, there will be people who will do it anyway."

In this case, both catering companies and chefs will not be able to cooperate smoothly, resulting in a "labor shortage" in restaurants and chefs unable to find jobs.

Therefore, some chefs choose to wait at home and slowly find jobs through chef groups and circles of friends.

Zong Yang said frankly: "To be honest, we still have chefs who stay at home all the time."

Xia Daqing, the head chef of a hotel in Wuhan, is from the perspective of a kitchen manager. Said: "To this day, I still know a few chefs who would rather not go to work and stay at home every day than work in kitchens where they think the wages are low. I don't know where their money comes from."

Zhai Guizhong was very disdainful of this: "Instead of waiting at home, it is better to take the initiative, even if it is to set up a stall."

Of course, some chefs would rather be lowered in wages and have a stable business. Take root in the old store.

"I heard from an old man in my current store that the head chef used to have a salary of 8,000 yuan and the head chef had a salary of 6,500 yuan. Later, due to the epidemic, the head chef and the head chef left. Later, all the chefs who joined the company It’s only 5,000, not a cent more.”

Therefore, a chef like Zong Yang who lives in a fourth-tier city and has family pressure will do it even if his salary is low, because he knows it in his heart. , what I need is stability.

“Last year, I didn’t even go to a store that cost 6,000 yuan, but I couldn’t help it this year. I could only find a store that was stable enough in a small city. Anyway, I expected to make a steady profit every month this year. 5,000 is not bad. Find your own balance and wait until this year.

Some chefs simply go to other cities to find opportunities.

Red Kitchen Network previously reported that in Nanjing. Master Jin, who worked as a cold dish supervisor in a state-owned hotel, had his salary cut by 1,000 yuan after returning to work. He was the only one left in the back kitchen with a new boy in charge of the entire cold dish room.

According to Jin. According to the master, he is also the supervisor of Lengcai, but the salary offered by this new hotel in Shanxi has been doubled, and there are five people under him.

"Fortunately, I had the courage to change cities for development. It was also luck. Fortunately, I met a coal boss. It was much better than staying in Nanjing, doing the work of several people, and getting a salary cut. "

This National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday has indeed given a "hard" boost to the catering industry. Chefs who have already returned to work feel "busy" again, but on the other hand, there are also There is a "job shortage" for chefs.

It's not that chefs are not looking for jobs, it's because the conditions offered by catering companies can't impress them.

Even chefs who change careers don't look back. Chefs who have been unemployed at home because they are too old to change careers cannot accept such conditions.

In this regard, Red Kitchen recommends:

1. If you are working in a small school. For those chefs who have not found a job in the city, it is recommended to go to big cities to try their luck and look for opportunities in cities where catering is recovering quickly and there is a shortage of people;

2. If you are a chef who is in a big city but has changed careers , you might as well take advantage of the current shortage of people in the industry and see if there is an opportunity to return to the chef industry;

3. If you are a chef who already has a job, it is recommended not to be half-hearted and work hard, because The world outside is not peaceful yet.

Let us hope that the chef industry will be better next year than this year.

Author | Sima