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2006 Hospitality Industry Wage & Benefit Salary Survey Results are in!

Outside the Lines, Inc has released the reports of their Annual Wine, Full-Service Restaurant and Hotel/Lodging Industry Wage and Benefits Surveys. Each of these comprehensive surveys are targeted specifically to the respective industries and cover entry level through senior management positions for companies throughout the United States & Canada. The surveys were open for participation to qualifying companies from September 1 through December 31, 2006.

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New opportunities with Outside the Lines, Inc

High-End, Professional, Executive Administrative / Personal Assistant
Fabulous surroundings!
We are seeking an outgoing, enthusiastic and highly professional individual with at least 5 years prior experience supporting one senior executive.
Experience in finance a plus!
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COO / Business Development Mgr - Food Manufacturer
New opportunity with International company.
Seeking individuals with 10+ years of commerical experience in the specialty food business.
Great opportunity to build a business and benefit from its growth!
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We are now conducting a Wine and Hospitality Industry Turnover Survey.
The survey consists of 4 questions only and should take less that two minutes. Results will be provided to any company that participates and provides an email address.
Click here to begin


Global, US hospitality industry needs workers

05 January 2006
A shrinking labor force is the number one challenge facing the global hospitality industry, according to the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, which recently convened to brainstorm world issues and rank them according to importance.

Employers are beginning to feel the effects of a shrinking labor force in the service industries, but few of us understand the causes of a smaller workforce. Some major countries are in real trouble in the decades ahead. This report explores effects, causes and offers a solution for certain countries to better compete in the world marketplace. Immigration, both legal and illegal, is a hot topic currently in the United States Congress, not because migration is a means of easing labor shortages, but because the USA wants to better control its borders --- to screen infiltration by terrorists. A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies found that 7.9 million people moved to the United States in the past five years, the highest five-year period of immigration since the peak of the last great wave of immigration in 1910. Of the nation's 35.2 million immigrants, the new report estimates as many as 13 million of them entered the USA illegally.

For years, the US and state governments turned a blind eye on the millions of low-skilled undocumented workers that entered the US illegally from Mexico, East Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Now, what to do with those illegal immigrants is the subject of fierce debate on Capital Hill.

Traditionally, the US has been a country of moderately high immigration. About 12.1 percent of the current US population was born in another country. Some estimates put the immigrant worker population in entry-level positions at US hotels and restaurants as high as 80 percent.

In the 21st century, the world economy is a service-economy. Services require people. Therefore, any worker shortages have a greater impact on the service industries, such as hospitality, leisure, recreation, childcare, healthcare, assisted living, long term care and other personal services. The number of available jobs in the USA is projected to increase by 22 million by 2010. Yet the labor force is projected to increase by only 17 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The US hospitality and leisure industry is expected to grow by 2.1 million jobs between 2002 and 2012 (17.8 percent) which represents a faster increase than the 14.8 percent job growth for all industries.

Effects of a Shrinking Labor Force
Employees are going to be hopping from one job to another and from one industry to another as never before. They will not be as efficient and effective as their predecessors were. As consumers, we are going to feel like we're not enjoying the same standard of living that we once had.

Neal Learner, reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, explains it this way: "You buy groceries at your friendly local food store and you have come to depend on the person behind the fish counter. You show up one day to buy your fish, and that person is no longer there because he's changed jobs. The person who is there doesn't seem to know what he or she is doing, and furthermore, doesn't really care much about you. And you're not the only one who feels this way. Other customers feel the same deterioration in service, and they choose not to go there anymore. Now that store is in trouble. Because it cannot find good people to serve its customers, its sales drop. You go back again and this time there is nobody behind the counter, and you have to call for somebody to help you." We can all feel the impact of a shrinking labor force at the corner grocery store, but the same feelings and impacts apply to hotels, tourist attractions and whole countries as they compete in the worldwide market.

Impact on Lodging
"In Nashville, a new general manager of major chain hotel sent a truck to a competitor's property. On the side of the truck was a sign offering cash bonuses to employees willing to come to work for him. On the inside of the truck was a man handing out applications. At the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, the average housekeeper accumulated almost 500 hours of overtime last year. When Disney Hotels was recruiting workers for its hotels and restaurants in Orlando, company representatives traveled to Pittsburgh, Rochester NY and San Juan, Puerto Rico offering $1500 relocation bonuses and a $100 airline ticket to anyone who would work for Disney for at least one year," according to Valerie Ferguson, former chairman of AH&LA, the trade association of the nation's $93 billion dollar lodging industry in her testimony to US House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Here's the bottom-line impact of a shrinking labor force:

A decline in personal service. There's nobody to help you.

A rise in self-help. Do it yourself.

Less convenience, more hassles, longer wait times.

More self-service.

Lower quality of life.

Less productive per person as a country.

Less competitive as a country in the world market.

More international migration of workers.

More companies will relocate offshore.

A possible brain drain from some countries.

Capital investment will flow to countries with abundant labor


Think of the adjustments we've already made: Online education courses eliminate the need for instructors, Microsoft Office eliminates the need for secretaries, ATM machines eliminate the need for bank tellers, self-check-out at Wal-Mart and Home Depot eliminates the need for store clerks. Self-check-in kiosks at hotels eliminate the need for front desk clerks. Credit card readers at parking lots and movie theaters eliminate the need for clerks and ticket-takers. Are these adjustments real advances? Perhaps. Is automation doing the boring jobs that nobody wants? Maybe. Are we preparing for a life of no service, except self service? Yes. Are we effectively training our smaller workforce for higher-skilled technical jobs? Not really.

While the effects of a shrinking labor force can be felt by almost everyone, the causes of a shrinking labor force are less well understood.

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For submissions, errors & omissions contact Michelle Keane, Editor :: michelle@otlconsulting.com

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