Restaurateurs announced a “vacuum” of cooks and bartenders

The jump in exchange rates, which has reduced the incomes of migrant workers in Russia, has exacerbated the problem with personnel in public catering - restaurateurs complain about a shortage of cooks and other personnel of up to 20-30%. Staffing shortages may increase wait times for food

The weakening of the ruble, which led to an outflow of migrants from Russia, as well as a lack of qualified personnel, aggravated the problem of staff shortages in the Moscow restaurant market, several market participants told RBC. The founder of the Chinese News restaurants, Stanislav Lisichenko, reported on the problem in his Telegram channel: “There is a terrible shortage of personnel in the Moscow restaurant market. There are simply no cooks,” notes Lisichenko.

Public catering lacks not only cooks, but also bartenders and cleaning staff, Sergei Mironov, founder of the Meat & Fish restaurant chain and chairman of the coordinating council of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers (FriO), told RBC. According to him, now in Moscow there is a shortage of employees of about 20-30% - “there has never been such a vacuum.”

The acute problem of staff shortages has been felt since June 2023, the press service of the Walker noodle chain confirmed to RBC. “We also felt this ourselves, and that’s why, gritting our teeth, we had to increase the salaries of our employees. All our vacancies have been filled, but this was done at the cost of great effort. The problem really exists, and it is relevant,” the company points out.

There is certainly a shortage of personnel in the restaurant market, agrees the founder of the Teremok restaurant chain, Mikhail Goncharov - according to his estimates, it is about 20%. However, Goncharov explains the situation rather as a seasonal factor: “there are traditionally not enough employees every year from June to the end of October, then in January there are too many personnel, and by summer there is a shortage again.” According to him, this is due to the fact that in the summer employees leave Moscow and St. Petersburg to visit their families back home.

Why do restaurants lack staff?

One of the main reasons for the shortage of personnel, according to Lisichenko, was the “expensive dollar”, which over the past year has reduced the income of foreigners sending salaries home by almost 40% - all this has had an extremely negative impact on the labor market. In addition, the labor market was affected by the consequences of the special military operation in Ukraine  - some were “scared,” some were mobilized, and others, including “new citizens of Russia,” left as volunteers, the entrepreneur lists. The last “nail in the coffin of the restaurant labor market,” according to Lisichenko, was the new autumn openings of restaurants that “pay absolutely any money“to simply recruit people and open”: the salaries of a line cook in restaurants that have not yet opened can reach up to 4 thousand rubles. per shift. The lack of staff may soon affect clients, Lisichenko warns: “Cooks will jump like little siskins from hot to cold workshops, and in between, cut their own workpieces. And guests will learn to wait for their orders, eat and order in courses; the wait for a hot dish on Saturday evening will be 45 minutes.”

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What happened to the exchange rate

May 2023 was remembered for the high volatility of the foreign exchange market - in the first half of the month, the dollar exchange rate managed to fall from ₽79.8 to ₽76.2, and then recovered to its previous level. From mid-May to September 2023, the dollar exchange rate added ₽16.5 to the ruble in absolute terms: according to Moscow Exchange data, as of September 4, the American currency on the Moscow Exchange cost ₽96.3. This was influenced by various factors - from an imbalance in export-import flows to panic buying against the backdrop of events around the Wagner PMC.

The acute shortage of employees in the Moscow restaurant market is primarily due to low wages and a lack of qualified personnel, says Alexey Vasilchuk, co-owner of the Restart Vasilchuk Brothers holding (Vasilchuki Chaihona No. 1, Depot food mall). “The restaurant market is not considered the most prestigious on the labor market,” Mironov complains. According to him, mostly people now prefer to become couriers or be self-employed. Another reason may be the tightening of migration policy, Mironov points out. “In addition, after the jump in the dollar exchange rate, it became unprofitable for migrants to work in Russia,” Vasilchuk added.

The share of foreigners employed in the Moscow restaurant market is about 60%, but if we talk only about fast food, then we are talking about 70–75%, estimates the head of the Walker project, Anton Krasulin. This happens because Russian citizens consider such work “thankless and difficult” even with large salaries, the expert points out. But against the backdrop of currency fluctuations, this work has become uninteresting for CIS citizens who send their salaries home, explains Krasulin. “Now many of our employees from the CIS choose to work not in Russia, but in other countries, for example the UAE, Turkey, South Korea,” says Krasulin. According to him, in these countries they have a comfortable salary and there are no sanctions that affected them when they worked in Russia.

How much do catering staff earn in Moscow?

According to the SuperJob service, the average salary of a general-purpose cook in Moscow as of September 4 was 70 thousand rubles. per month, over the year it grew by 7.7%. At the same time, the average salary of a baker was 60 thousand rubles. per month, over the year it grew by 9%. The confectioner receives on average the same amount per month; year on year his salary increased by 5%. The barista earns a little less - 52 thousand rubles. per month, which is 4% more than a year ago. A dishwasher earns the least in the catering industry - his average salary is 42 thousand rubles. on hand, compared to the beginning of September last year, an increase of 5%.

There have been shortages of employees since September 2022, after the start of partial mobilization, Mironov recalls. However, the departure of people abroad after partial mobilization ultimately had a minor impact on the restaurant labor market, since some people have already returned, Vasilchuk believes. Among other reasons for the lack of personnel for restaurants, Mironov names the demographic gap and the lack of training of people “for the industry,” as was the case, for example, during the planned economy of the USSR.

Another reason for the shortage of personnel may be the competition of restaurants for staff with a wider area of ​​trade and services, including food delivery marketplaces, Krasulin believes - specific experience is not needed for these positions, he explains. In addition to this, against the backdrop of import substitution, more vacancies are appearing in other industries - agriculture , heavy and light industry enterprises in the regions attract employees who worked in Moscow, says Goncharov.

A shortage of staff in the restaurant industry leads to a decrease in the quality of service, an increase in the waiting time for visitors and a deterioration in the overall reputation of the establishment, says Anna Vasilyeva, an expert at the NEO consulting company. The trend of staff shortages in public catering, according to her, began a long time ago - even at the stage of coronavirus: “Even then, many young people changed their choice of field, having become disillusioned with public catering as a stable employer, and went to work as couriers, order pickers and warehouse workers, where the earnings higher than in public catering." Now interest in working in this area has continued to decline, including due to the lack of appropriate education and qualifications and competition from other industries. With the start of a special military operation, the number of young people willing to work in restaurants decreased,IT , and the weakening of the ruble had a negative impact on attracting foreign workers. “Restaurant clients have also changed - they have become more economical and leave restrained tips, which, in turn, affects the staff’s profits and their motivation to work in this area,” adds Vasilyeva.

Increasing employee salaries will not save the situation, since there is now zero unemployment in the Moscow market, and restaurants will simply lure employees away from each other, Mironov warns. According to him, one solution to the problem may be to attract personnel from developing countries friendly to Russia: “For example, many good ready-made chefs come from Kyrgyzstan.”

The Ministry of Industry and Trade forwarded personnel issues in the restaurant industry to the Ministry of Labor. RBC sent a request to the ministry, as well as to the Moscow Department of Trade and Services.

Who else is facing the problem of acute staff shortages?

Industry is also experiencing a shortage of employees. In July, 42% of industrial enterprises surveyed by the Market Research Laboratory of the Institute of Economic Policy named after A. Gaidar (IEP). This level of staff shortage was the highest since 1996, breaking the record achieved in April: then 35% of respondents indicated a shortage of employees.

The problem of staff shortages became acute back in January 2022, when the economy began to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic  , when a quarter of enterprises reported a shortage of employees. Anti-Russian sanctions, which led to an increase in import -substituting goods, as well as the intensification of state defense orders and partial mobilization, increased the depth of the personnel shortage. In October 2022, after the announcement of partial mobilization, the share of those reporting a personnel shortage was 33%. In January 2023, the deficit decreased slightly to 27%, but in April 35% of companies already complained about the lack of workers.