Employment dynamics in the hotel sector : a post-recession analysis of Malta

Abstract

In this study, the researcher aimed to answer the question, "How have employment dynamics changed within the hotel industry in Malta following the global recession?". This study would also delve into the decisions taken by the three, four and five star hotels in order to counteract anything effects left by the recession. Another issue which this research touches upon is seasonality and seasonal employment in the summer months.

Interviews with six hotels of different star rating were carried out in order to get a better idea of the effects on employment in the different ratings. Human Resource managers and Operations managers were the interviewees and were chosen due to their working roles within their respective hotel.

The general findings were that employment did not change drastically during the recession; however, certain hotels did experience a dip in demand and therefore needed to take actions in order to combat this dip. An interesting finding was the common agreement between the hotels on the lack of local potential employees in the Maltese labour market.

The conclusions reached were that the recession did have an immediate effect on the hotels' employment dynamics however, these effects were not that detrimental to the hotels and they bounced back stronger at a very fast rate. These findings opened up new avenues for further research such as the lack of locals willing to work in the hospitality industry and trying to answer why the hospitality industry in Malta was so resilient during the recession.