Summer Season Hiring Crisis: Employers Struggle to Fill Positions in Hautes-Pyrénées Department

As the summer season approaches many employers are still looking for employees to help them run their businesses.

With approximately 270,000 overnight stays for the months of July and August 2022 in the Hautes-Pyrénées according to INSEE, the need for personnel is felt more and more. “It is really difficult to recruit” notes a professional.

Some hotels have had to leave “cold keys” (rooms not rented) and restaurant owners are forced to close on certain days for lack of employees.

For Christian Gélis, president of the Union of Trades and Industries of the Hotel Industry (UMIH) of the Hautes-Pyrénées, the department could lack 25% of manpower this season. With a stronger than expected return to tourism, recruitment is lagging behind. This difficulty can be explained by various factors.

The attractiveness of offers

First by a lack of attractiveness of certain offers. If the salary is the first condition that comes to mind, others tip the scales such as working conditions, mobility or the presence of crèches for parents, for example.

According to Christian Gélis, “the question of training seasonal workers must also be reviewed.”

Unable to find qualified personnel, employers train their employees on the job. Some solutions are being put in place in the department, the GIPE, House of Seasonality of the Aure and Louron valleys, supports seasonal workers to train them in the off-season.

Pôle Emploi offers periods of immersion in the professional environment so that seasonal workers can discover the sector and the company.

Unemployment insurance reform

The unemployment insurance reform of October 2021 contributes to making the status of seasonal worker less attractive. With the lengthening of the minimum duration of work from 4 to 6 months, a season, which lasts less than 6 months, is no longer enough to receive unemployment.

Periods not worked are also counted in the calculation of the allowance. However, seasonal work is characterized by periods without work, so the amount of unemployment paid is lower.

The housing problem

Competing from platforms like Airbnb and individuals, employers lack accommodation to attract job seekers. For Thierry Galeazzi, restaurateur and UMIH delegate from Aure and Louron, “housing will be the main problem for the years to come, especially in the valleys where the situation is all the more tense.”

More and more seasonal workers are living in vans which guarantee them housing and mobility, but the problem of location for access to water and electricity remains the same.