The Ukrainian restaurant business is facing a shortage of staff due to mobilization and emigration. The lack of workers and staff turnover are forcing restaurant owners to look for new approaches.
In 2024, employers began to talk about a serious shortage of personnel. In late spring, a post by Anna Zavertaylo, co-founder of the Zavertaylo restaurant chain, about the shortage of people in small and medium-sized businesses became viral (it received over four thousand reposts and over a thousand comments). In her opinion, people from ordinary service will soon be worth their weight in gold.
The owner of the Gastrofamily restaurant chain, Dmytro Borisov, in an interview with MC.today also confirmed that the labor market situation in Ukraine is currently difficult due to mobilization.
“A large number of women who previously worked in the service sector as cooks or waitresses left the country due to the full-scale war. Now the problem has increased due to the mobilization of men. But our team is stable, we will cope with these challenges,” the restaurateur said.
Back in early June, the Ministry of Economy reported that more than half of Ukrainian companies faced the problem of finding qualified workers.
According to the survey, mobilization (67%) and migration processes (54%), according to company representatives, are the main reasons for the labor shortage.
Restaurateur Volodymyr Yaroslavsky said that hiring staff is currently difficult, there is a shortage of various workers in different processes, but most of all - qualified personnel. According to him, the situation is also worsened by power outages.
