Twenty-one companies offered 122 job offers on Wednesday morning at the Pelico space, with some offering up to five positions for the two busy summer months in the hotel-restaurant sector. While the season is stretching, these two months still concentrate on an activity that allows less qualified staff to earn some money or gain work experience.
The difficulties faced are not the same as immediately after Covid. However, a job fair remains necessary to help the many companies in the hotel-restaurant sector find their workforce. “Last year, we had twelve companies. Today, there are twenty-one,” detailed Christelle Donnadieu, a business advisor at the Alès-Gardon agency of France Travail. The fact that this event is in its fifth edition and existed before Covid shows the ongoing struggle to find a workforce is not solely due to the pandemic.
This morning, only the two summer months are being advertised by employers mainly from Anduze and Saint-Jean-du-Gard, primarily focusing on restaurants and campsites. “We already had an event at the end of January in Alès for longer contracts, from Easter to late October, involving cleaning staff or those in charge of reactivating the locations. This morning is specifically for the high season,” explained Christelle Donnadieu.
The demand is still high, with the majority of employers having four positions available, and up to fifteen servers needed for a well-known fast-food restaurant in Anduze. “Cooks are still difficult to find in the sector,” regrets Christelle Donnadieu. “But for kitchen assistants or dishwashers, it’s less of a challenge. After Covid, the sector has also made efforts to become more attractive. Overall, working conditions have slightly improved. The sector has made an effort to provide two consecutive days off for its employees.”
However, some challenges remain, such as transportation to get to work. “Nowadays, campsites often offer accommodation solutions,” added Christelle Donnadieu. In the urban area, there is the Mobil’ Job initiative, an electric mobility platform, in collaboration with the Alès Employment Office.
An association based in Atome offers “diagnostics, credit assistance, electric vehicle rentals, and driver’s license training,” detailed Roxane Castanet, mobility reference at the Employment Office. “Our cars have an 80 km range and are geolocated so that they are only used for commuting.” To benefit from the service in the territories of Alès Agglo and Cèze Cévennes, one must not be taxable. “And the career project must be very concrete.” After just over an hour, over a hundred candidates had already come to inquire at the Pelico space.
