Dubai: Kuwait’s restaurant and hotel sector is reported to be suffering from a severe shortage of workers, including those in delivery services, due to the suspension of recruitment from abroad, Al Qabas said.
The newspaper said it has obtained a copy of the governmental report showing a decrease in the number of workers in accommodation and food services from March 2020 and March 2021.
Fahd Al Arbash, Head of the Restaurants Association, stressed that “restaurant owners have been unable to operate properly due to the suspension of the recruitment of foreign workers and scarcity of specialised workers with experience such as cooks, bakers, sweets makers and others.”
Al Arbash said the available workers in the local labour market are not specialised in restaurant operations and it is not easy to train them to join the food industry.
He added the salaries of workers in catering services have more than doubled due to the lack of workers; such that a cleaner in a restaurant now receives KD300 salary compared to KD150 in the past, while those specialised in the restaurant sector are now paid KD1,000 compared to KD400 in the past.
