Despite slight improvement, hotels still struggle to fill positions

As New Jersey’s leisure and hospitality industry works toward recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, hotel operators across the state continue to face labor shortages. In a newly released survey from the American Hotel & Lodging Association, 87% of hotel operators said they are struggling to fill open positions, with 36% reporting that the situation was severe. Though they have taken steps to try and address vacancies, such as boosting pay (81%), offering employees more flexible hours (64%) and expanding benefits to workers (35%), 91% said they remain short-staffed.

However, the situation is slightly better than in May, when 97% of hoteliers told AHLA they had issues filling jobs. On average, hotel operators are trying to fill 10.3 open positions per property, down from 12 vacancies in May’s survey.

According to AHLA, 43% of respondents said housekeepers are the hardest position to fill and they are having a difficult time finding enough cleaning staff for their hotels.

“Staffing has been rough,” said Christina Ranuro, general manager of The White Sands Oceanfront Resort and Spa in Point Pleasant. “I find keeping employees much easier than hiring new ones,” she explained. “I have a great rapport with our staff and they become part of the family.”

Ranuro also said the business has “found some relief” in hiring international students on J-1 visas but noted that those workers have to be housed.

When it comes to why the shortage persists, Ranuro couldn’t pinpoint a particular reason.

“I honestly don’t know. I had thought it was because of COVID relief funds, but that should not have been a factor this summer,” she explained. “I think the minimum wage may be the issue. I think employees are seeking higher pay than what can be affordable for companies. I know I cannot hire less than $15 an hour.”

“I also think that the new generation values their work-life balance and do not wish to work full shifts,” Ranuro said. “I really am not sure.”

While the New Jersey Business & Industry Association is still gathering specific data on hotel staffing as part of its annual business outlook survey, Chief Communications Officer Bob Considine said, “We have heard from some member hotels that staffing continues to be a great challenge.”

“This has been the case in both the peak seasons and the off seasons. We’ve heard, in particular, challenges in attracting and maintaining housekeeping staff,” he said.

“In many ways, these challenges mirror what we’ve seen throughout the hospitality industry in New Jersey and even nationally – that some jobs have remained unfilled since the start of the pandemic in March 2020,” he went on. “These continued staffing challenges have occurred even with hotels and motels offering more in terms of wages, benefits and incentives.”

According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics job report, 83,000 jobs were added in September to the leisure and hospitality sector, but the industry remains 6.7% below its pre-pandemic level of 1.1 million in February 2020.

In New Jersey, the leisure and hospitality industry employed 388,700 employees in September, up from 339,300 a year ago, according to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Before the pandemic leisure and hospitality was one of the sectors in the state projected to grow the most through 2028, but COVID changed everything. In April 2020, a month into Gov. Phil Murphy’s shutdown orders for non-essential businesses, leisure and hospitality represented 236,500 of the 757,700 jobs lost.

Altogether, the pandemic wiped out more than 16,000 hotel jobs in the Garden State, according to the BLS.

The agency estimated that the Garden State saw over 16,000 hotel jobs wiped out by the pandemic.

Despite the staffing challenges, the hotel industry is making progress toward recovery, with room revenue and state and local tax revenues projected to exceed 2019 levels by the end of the year. According to the AHLA, hotels are expected to generate nearly $44 billion in revenue in 2022, up 7% from pre-pandemic levels. New Jersey is anticipating about $1.2 billion in revenue, a 6.2% increase from 2019’s total.

Visitor spending in New Jersey rose to $37.38 billion in 2021, increasing by $807 million (or nearly 2%) over 2020. According to the state Division of Travel and Tourism, 28% of that was spent at hotels and motels, helping fuel a 50% rebound in the lodging sector.