Study: Hospitality Workers Are Angry And Won't Be Coming Back

The hospitality industry’s loss could be real estate’s gain, according to a new study indicating the droves of workers laid off or furloughed during the pandemic are mad as hell and won't take it anymore, having permanently turned to other industries.

Researchers with the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership collected data from more than 300 online surveys and over 100 responses to a scenario-based experimental study, finding a large majority of those that dropped out of hospitality roles will never return for one reason: anger.

“Your job, your livelihood is taken away, so a natural response is fear for your future,” Curtis L. Carlson endowed professor Juan Madera, a study co-author, said in a release. “But we found anger was a bigger driver in explaining why these workers aren’t coming back. They were angry over how the industry responded to the pandemic.”

The hospitality industry was hit hardest during the first few months of the pandemic in 2020, resulting in nearly 8 million job losses. It has also been the slowest to recover. About 1.3 million hospitality jobs were still available in July, the study found, indicating workers have turned to more consistent industries, most commonly business and real estate.

Skilled hospitality workers now permanently ensconced in other industries could make it difficult for businesses to staff workers, especially in the lodging and food and beverage sectors. 

“I think by and large, people who were laid off or furloughed during the pandemic probably moved on to different industries altogether,” Hilton College teaching fellow Iuliana Popa said in the release. “Something more stable and less dependent on those in-person interactions where their skills were transferable, like business or real estate.”

Popa and Madera said the hospitality industry was uniquely unprepared for the pandemic, letting people go and then trying to rehire them later. The way it was handled upset workers, the researchers said. 

“Workers in the hospitality industry already had it hard, whether it’s low wages or having to work weekends, overnights and holidays,” Popa said. “It’s a very demanding job, so to go through all of that and then be laid off was kind of the last straw.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 1 in 4 hospitality jobs had been recovered by last year. In 2031, BLS predicts there will be about 16 million hospitality and leisure jobs, down from 2019’s 16.6 million.

To counteract the expected contraction, the research team recommends the hospitality industry offer higher compensation, provide enhanced benefits, and do a better job of protecting workers’ health and building their trust.

“If there’s another crisis in the industry, they’ll want to know there’s a plan in place and that they’ll be protected, financially, emotionally and physically,” Popa said.