As the unemployment rate continues to climb, opportunities to work in the hospitality industry continue to grow. The labor force of the hospitality industry is not appealing to our American citizen causing the industry to hire non Americans to work in the field. The issues that are being faced with hiring are immigration laws. Unlike other appealing jobs in America, American citizens do not want to work in a field that is labor intensive and physically demanding. Many employers in this industry have concerns with all the job opportunities and not being able to fill them with qualified Americans. The cause of the rapid opportunities is because; the workforce is aging causing more jobs to come available. What is happens to the work force? Current immigration issues are having a negative impact on the ability of the hospitality industry to hire immigrants.
The Labor force in hospitality is experiencing severe shortages in interested and eligible applicants. “Our current workforce size according to the American hotel and Lodging Association in 2004 was 1,795,000 Million. The Bureau of labor Statistics predicts a 16.4%growth rate in hospitality jobs requiring close to 500,000 additional employees reaching over 2.1 million 2014. The industry as a whole is expected to grow 15% or approximately 2 million jobs (1).” We are facing a mounting labor shortage, and it is being felt in every congressional district across the country,” said Marlene Colucci, AH&LA’s executive vice president for public policy, in a statement. “Personal service is the lifeblood of the lodging industry. Hiring workers to fill critical service positions is one of the industry’s most urgent issues.” In order for the industry to succeeded HR Professionals need to figure out what is the major cause of this issues and develop an action plan and strategic strategy to discuss the amount of available jobs.
With the work demands so high, HR professionals are noticing a high demand of foreign candidates interested in job openings compared to U.S. Workers. This makes it much easier for HR to fill urgent openings. “Research from Jacob J. sapochnick says that foreign workers tend to be reliable and loyal employees. They do not switch employers as often as U.S. workers do as their visa are employer specific. They also tend to appreciate the sponsoring U.S. employer and tend to develop a long employment relationship most of the time (2).” In an industry where service is the main aspect of your job it cannot be outsource or automated. Personal service is the life blood of the lodging industry. Today we see a lot of foreign workers working in all the labor intensive fields within the hospitality industry. Hiring foreign workers is a different process as if you were going to hire an American worker. Foreign worker need to apply for a type of Visa in order to work in the U.S., There are several types of work visas an employer can sponsor for a potential employee. This has an impact on how well a foreign worker performs because their employer is sponsoring them to stay and work here in America. As employers turn to hiring foreign worker there next obstacle is to sponsor them to work which is a long process with the demand for worker there is only so much they can do. Shawn Mcburney points out something very interesting about coming up with a reformed to secure our borders; He said “Our immigration system must be reformed to secure our borders and protect our economic security by creating a guest worker program that:
Meets the increasing demand for labor,
Identifies those immigrants already in the country and provides a method for a status adjustment after they are subjected to a rigorous screening process and fined, and
Allows those who qualify to work in jobs for which Americans cannot be found.” (AHLA 01)
This reformed: guest worker program will be a great idea to help with the labor condition and help the industry job shortage decease. As there is talk about