Hospitality
Overview
This page provides information and data on the Hospitality sector and its related occupations. It focuses partially on occupations and training in hospitality and hospitality management qualifications.
The Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) categorises the Hospitality sector as encompassing businesses that provide accommodation, food and beverages such as cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services; pubs, taverns and bars; hotels, motels and other accommodation and hospitality clubs.
Key Hospitality occupations include:
- Cafe and Restaurant Managers
- Retail Managers
- Bar Attendants and Baristas
- Cafe Workers
- Waiters
- Sales Assistants
- Receptionists
- Hotel and Motel Managers
- Hotel Service Managers.
This sector has been growing steadily over the past 5 years with the growth attributed to factors such as a growing ‘foodie’ culture, the popularity among many individuals to owning a hospitality business, population growth and an increase in consumer demand.
The food and beverage services workforce is made up of 777,300 workers, making it one of the largest employing sub-sectors in Australia. The Clubs industry alone employed 130,000 workers in 2015.
Nationally recognised training for Hospitality is delivered under the SIT - Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Training Package
For more information on Tourism and Travel, Cookery, and Events please visit the respective pages.
Information sourced from the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast.
All data sources are available at the end of the page.
IRC and Skills Forecasts
Employment trends
Employment snapshot
The employment level for the accommodation services has remained fairly stable since 2000 with some minor fluctuations. In 2019 the employment level was at 105,600 and is projected to grow slightly to 112,900 by 2024. The food and beverage services industries has grown strongly over the past few decades, from around 500,600 in 2000 to 820,900 in 2019, and are expected to continue growing over the next five years to 2024. By 2024, these two industry sectors are projected to employ in total over 1,000,000 people.
Most hospitality-related occupations are projected to show growth to 2024, with the strongest growth expected for Café Workers at close to 19% and Chefs with over 16%.
Training trends
Training snapshot
Program enrolments in Hospitality-related qualifications have steadily decreased to 100,570 in 2018, after peaking at approximately 116,030 in 2016. Completions followed a relatively similar pattern, although one year later, peaking at approximately 37,760 in 2017 before declining to roughly 33,140 in 2018.
The majority of training was undertaken at certificate II (35%), certificate III (30%) or diploma or higher (22%) level, and predominantly took place within the qualification clusters of Certificate I & II in Hospitality (42%), Certificate III & IV in Hospitality (36%) and Hospitality Management (Diploma & Advanced Diploma) (22%). The main intended occupations were Hospitality Workers, and Accommodation and Hospitality Managers.
More than half of the training overall was delivered by private training providers (60%), with a small proportion delivered by schools (18%) and TAFE institutes (16%). There were some variances to this, with TAFE institutes providing a higher proportion of training for Hospitality (Diploma & Advanced Diploma) (64%) and schools accounting of 41% of training for Certificate I & II in Hospitality. Close to two thirds of training overall was Commonwealth and state government funded (64%), with the remaining split between international fee for service (22%) and domestic fee for service (14%).
Almost half of the training was undertaken by students residing in Queensland (27%) and New South Wales (22%). A further 19% of students were located overseas.
Similar proportions of training were delivered in both Queensland (30%) and New South Wales (29%), followed by 19% in Victoria and 13% in Western Australia.
Apprentice and trainee commencements have been declining steadily since 2011, with roughly 9,240 commencements recorded in 2018. Completions have also trended down since 2012 apart from a brief rise in 2017, there were approximately 4,460 completions in 2018. Hospitality Worker was the most common intended occupation, followed by Hotel Service Manager.
The highest proportion of apprentices in training were reported by Queensland (29%), followed by Victoria (24%), New South Wales (20%) and Western Australia (19%).
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Industry insights
Industry insights on skills needs
According to the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, the top priority skills in the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality industry (inclusive of the Hospitality sector) are:
- Teamwork and communication
- Problem solving
- Resilience, stress tolerance and adaptability
- Self-management.
In addition to these priority skills, the job vacancy data shows that communication is the top generic skill in demand by employers in the Food and Beverage Services industry. According to job advertisements the top occupations in demand are Bar Attendants and Baristas, and Waiters, with Compass Group PLC and Burger King identified as the top employers.
The Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast also highlights that Waiters is one of the top growth roles for the industry, with it estimated that an additional 21,800 workers will be needed to fill this type of role by 2023.
The Australian Trade Commission’s Australian Tourism Labour Force Report: 2015-2020 provides a comprehensive picture of the current state of the tourism labour force and projects skills demand and shortages forward to 2020. Consistently, hospitality staff is coming up as the occupation the tourism industry identifies as experiencing shortages. The report also cites a large increase in the proportion of businesses identifying skills deficiencies, with 69% reporting skills deficiencies among their staff. It appears that businesses are not finding the skills they need to operate effectively and may affect the productivity and competitiveness of the sector.
Links and resources
Government bodies
Australian Trade Commission (Austrade)
South Australian Tourism Commission
State-based industry associations
NSW Business Chamber - Tourism
Queensland Tourism Industry Council
South Australian Tourism Industry Council
Tasmanian Hospitality Association
Victoria Tourism Industry Council
Industry associations and advisory bodies
Accommodation Association of Australia
Australian Culinary Federation
Australian Regional Tourism Network
Australian Tourism Export Council
Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia
Guiding Organisations Australia
Restaurant & Catering Australia
Tourism Accommodation Australia
Tourism Hospitality Catering Institute of Australia
Tourism and Transport Forum Australia
Employee associations
Relevant research
Australian Tourism Labour Force Report: 2015-2020 – Australian Trade Commission, Austrade
Data sources and notes
Department of Employment, 2018, Employment Projections, available from the Labour Market Information Portal
- by 2 digit ANZSIC 44 Accommodation and 45 Food and Beverage Services industries, employment projections to May 2023
- by ANZSCO, selected occupations, employment projections to May 2023
- 8114 Housekeepers
- 1413 Hotel and Motel Managers
- 4315 Waiters
- 3513 Chefs
- 4314 Hotel Service Managers
- 1419 Other Accommodation and Hospitality Managers
- 4311 Bar Attendants and Baristas
- 6211 Sales Assistants (General)
- 8513 Kitchenhands
- 1411 Cafe and Restaurant Managers
- 8511 Fast Food Cooks
- 1421 Retail Managers
- 4312 Cafe Workers.
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018, Employed persons by Industry group of main job (ANZSIC), sex, state and territory, November 1984 onwards, 6291.0.55.003 - EQ06, viewed 1 November 2018 http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6291.0.55.003May%202018?OpenDocument
- Employed total by 2 digit ANZSIC 44 Accommodation and 45 Food and Beverage Services industries, 2000 to 2018, May Quarter.
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017, 2016 Census – employment, income and unpaid work, TableBuilder. Findings based on use of ABS TableBuilder data.
- Employment level by 2 digit ANZSIC 44 Accommodation and 45 Food and Beverage Services industries, and 4 digit level occupations to identify the relevant VET-related occupations in the industry as a proportion of the total workforce.
Training data has been extracted from the National VET Provider Collection, Total VET Student and Courses from the following training package or qualifications:
- SIT Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Training Package
- SIT10207 - Certificate I in Hospitality
- SIT10212 - Certificate I in Hospitality
- SIT10213 - Certificate I in Hospitality
- SIT10216 - Certificate I in Hospitality
- SIT20207 - Certificate II in Hospitality
- SIT20212 - Certificate II in Hospitality
- SIT20213 - Certificate II in Hospitality
- SIT20316 - Certificate II in Hospitality
- THH11002 - Certificate I in Hospitality (Operations)
- THH21802 - Certificate II in Hospitality (Operations)
- SIT30616 - Certificate III in Hospitality
- SIT30707 - Certificate III in Hospitality
- SIT30712 - Certificate III in Hospitality
- SIT30713 - Certificate III in Hospitality
- SIT30716 - Certificate III in Hospitality (Restaurant Front of House)
- SIT40307 - Certificate IV in Hospitality
- SIT40312 - Certificate IV in Hospitality
- SIT40313 - Certificate IV in Hospitality
- SIT40416 - Certificate IV in Hospitality
- SIT50307 - Diploma of Hospitality
- SIT50312 - Diploma of Hospitality
- SIT50313 - Diploma of Hospitality
- SIT60307 - Advanced Diploma of Hospitality
- SIT60312 - Advanced Diploma of Hospitality
- SIT60313 - Advanced Diploma of Hospitality
- SIT50416 - Diploma of Hospitality Management
- SIT60316 - Advanced Diploma of Hospitality Management
- THH51202 - Diploma of Hospitality Management
- THH51297 - Diploma of Hospitality (Management)
- THH11097 - Certificate I in Hospitality (Operations)
- THH21197 - Certificate II in Hospitality (Security)
- THH21897 - Certificate II in Hospitality (Operations)
- THH31497 - Certificate III in Hospitality (Security)
- THH32797 - Certificate III in Hospitality (Food and Beverage)
- THH32897 - Certificate III in Hospitality (Accommodation Services)
- THH33002 - Certificate III in Hospitality (Operations)
- THH42397 - Certificate IV in Hospitality (Food and Beverage Supervision)
- THH42497 - Certificate IV in Hospitality (Accommodation Services Supervision)
- THH42602 - Certificate IV in Hospitality (Supervision).
This includes superseded qualifications and training packages.
Data covers a range of selected student and training characteristics in the following categories and years:
- 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 program enrolments
- 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 subject enrolments
- 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 program completions.
Total VET students and courses data is reported for the calendar year. Program enrolments are the qualifications, courses and skill-sets in which students are enrolled in a given period. For students enrolled in multiple programs, all programs are counted. Program completion indicates that a student has completed a structured and integrated program of education or training. Location data uses student residence. Subject enrolment is registration of a student at a training delivery location for the purpose of undertaking a module, unit of competency or subject. For more information on the terms and definitions, please refer to the Total VET students and courses: terms and definitions document.
Low counts (less than 5) are not reported to protect client confidentiality.
Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. This can lead to situations where the total sum of proportions in a chart may not add up to exactly 100%.
SIT Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Training Package apprentice and trainee data has been extracted from the National Apprentice and Trainee collection, including:
- 2010 to 2018 commencements
- 2010 to 2018 completions
- 2018 apprentices and trainees in-training October to December 2018 collection, by qualification and state and territory of data submitter.
Priority skills data have been extracted from the Tourism, Travel and Hospitality IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast.
Job vacancy data have been extracted from Burning Glass Technologies 2019, Labor Insight Real-time Labor Market Information Tool, Burning Glass Technologies, Boston, viewed July 2019, https://www.burning-glass.com.
Data shown represent most requested generic skills, occupations and employers according to internet job postings in Australia between July 2016 and June 2019 filtered by ANZSIC and ANZSCO classification levels listed below.
- Generic skills / Occupations
- Managers, Technicians and Trades workers, Community and Personal Service Workers, Labourers
- 45 Food and Beverage Services.
- Employers
- 4311 Bar Attendants and Baristas
- 4315 Waiters
- 1411 Cafe and Restaurant Managers
- 8512 Food Trades Assistants
- 3513 Chefs
- 45 Food and Beverage Services.