2100 Miami hotel job openings imperil operations

Miami-Dade County is at the top of the list for areas in the nation with high demand for hotel workforce, with almost 2,100 job openings in the hotel industry unfilled.

A national survey of hoteliers, conducted by the American Hotel and Lodging Association in May and presented in June, showed that hotels nationwide are offering incentives to fill vacancies in their workforce as the summer begins.

According to the report, 75% of the 474 hoteliers surveyed are increasing wages, 64% are offering greater flexibility with hours, and 36% are expanding other benefits, but 87% of hoteliers say they are still unable to fill open positions.

In the Miami area, 2,097 positions are unfilled in the hotel industry, varying from front desk receptionists, hotel housekeepers, valet attendants and more, according to Indeed.com as of June 20.

In addition, 82% of survey respondents said they face a staffing shortage, and 26% are experiencing that shortage “severely so – meaning the shortage is impacting the hotel’s ability to operate,” according to the AHLA report.

The survey also showed that 40% of the staffing shortage is related to demand for housekeeping personnel, but employers are seeking staff “in a multitude of roles from entry-level through management,” according to the report.

“There is high demand for hotels right now,” said Chip Rogers, president and CEO of AHLA. “Miami led the way, keeping [pandemic] closures for a really short time, but on the supply side, there are fewer Americans working today.”

Miami-Dade is at the top of the list of areas with high demand for hotel workforce, although wages have risen significantly. The average hotel salary in Miami is $42,522 as of May 25, according to Salary.com. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, compensation for private industry workers increased 6.1% in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Port St. Lucie area for the year ended in March. Miami had an annual rise of 4.3% in compensation costs.

Last year alone, hotel guests spent $69.1 billion in destinations across the state, and Florida hotels generated nearly $6.9 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue, according to an Oxford Economics analysis. Wages and salaries in the hotel industry in Florida reached $10.4 billion, with 183,150 jobs in 2022.

Nationwide, more than 100,000 hotel jobs are currently open, and in April the average hotel wage hit an all-time high of more than $23 per hour, according to AHLA. Since the pandemic, average hotel wages have soared by 26%, faster than the average wage throughout the economy at 16%.

This shortage “is going to stay with us,” said Mr. Rogers. “We won’t ever be at a point where you’d have a hard time finding a job at the hotel industry anytime soon.”

In the US, as of April, 10.1 million jobs were open but only 5.7 million unemployed people were available to fill them, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“We’re looking at every way possible to both attract and maintain workers in our industry,” said Mr. Rogers.

The AHLA Foundation launched an Empowering Youth Program to recruit young adults for entry-level hotel positions, providing them with training to excel in careers in hospitality. The program provides pathways to opportunities in the industry and grants employers talent for positions on demand.

“We’re attempting to find people who are not in the workforce, between the ages of 18 to 24, who have the skillset to build a career in our industry,” said Mr. Rogers. “We partnered with youth empowering entities all across the country to find those young people, give them the training they need, and set them up for a job in the hotel industry.”

In Miami, Miami Dade College offers the program.

Another program facilitated by the AHLA Foundation is the Apprenticeship Program, founded by the US Department of Labor. This program provides an opportunity for workers already in the workforce to advance their careers and get management and leadership training.

“These are people that have been identified by their employers as future leaders,” said Mr. Rogers. “It’s an eight- to nine-month course that allows people to get management apprenticeships. We set them up locally. We work directly with their employers.”

Congress could help address the hotel industry workforce shortages, he added, by expanding the H-2B guestworker program’s cap, which is currently at 66,000 visas each year.

According to a press release, AHLA is asking Congress to modify the H-2B nonimmigrant visa program by exempting returning workers from the cap. “These employees would provide critical staffing relief for seasonal small business hotels and help to rebuild the post-pandemic economy,” the association said in a statement.

Another piece of legislation that could pass, according to AHLA, is the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act (255/HR 1325), which would allow asylum seekers already housed in hotels across the US who are awaiting court dates to legally work for at least six months, helping hotels address their staffing needs.

“We need more workers,” said Mr. Rogers. “We need a more robust visiting workers program in the US. At some point, Congress has to figure out a way to change immigration laws to allow for people that want to come into the country specifically to work, to come in.”