The 2024 New Zealand Hospitality and Tourism Employment Survey on employment conditions reveals a mixed picture of progress and areas for improvement.
While the sector has made strides in improving turnover rates, employee satisfaction, and training opportunities, challenges remain in key areas such as bullying, burnout, and pay equity.
The report highlights significant progress across the industry. Turnover rates have decreased, job satisfaction has risen, and training opportunities have improved markedly. Encouragingly, the vast majority of employees feel confident in their skills and report being treated with respect by their managers, reflecting the strides employers have made in creating better workplace environments.
However, persistent issues like unchanged bullying rates, pay disparities, and inconsistent access to rest breaks and sick leave highlight areas where further focus is required.
The 2024 survey showed significant improvements on the 2022 survey findings, with increases across many key measures:
- 57.2% of respondents indicated training opportunities were good, up from 40.5% in 2022
- Overall job satisfaction increased to 67.5% in 2024 vs 62.2% in 2022
- The percentage of respondents indicating they intended to leave the hospitality and tourism sector dramatically reduced to 18.3% in 2024 vs 33.7% in 2022.
The report also indicates 91% of respondents cared about being productive in their jobs, and 90% felt they had the skills to do their jobs with confidence.
Restaurant Association CEO Marisa Bidois welcomed the report, emphasising the importance of this data for driving meaningful change.
“This report provides a valuable snapshot of where the industry is thriving and where more work is needed. The progress in turnover and satisfaction is encouraging, and it’s a testament to the commitment of employers across the sector,” says Bidois. “At the same time, the findings show that certain groups and areas of the industry require specific attention, and we are committed to addressing these challenges.”
The Restaurant Association says it is focused on using these insights to advocate for and support industry-wide improvements.
“This kind of data helps us understand the complexities of the industry and gives us a clear brief for action,” Bidois adds. “We look forward to working with MBIE and other stakeholders to ensure that we build a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient sector.”
Steve Armitage, Chief Executive of Hospitality NZ, says “This report highlights real progress on behalf of employers to increase workplace satisfaction for their teams, with concentrated effort on improving best practice and better training availability.
“Hospitality is focused on being a sector of choice and improving our employees’ experiences in our industry. We are pleased to see advancement has been made, as understanding how our workforce feels is key to ensuring progress continues.”
Sector-wide Consultation
The 2024 New Zealand Hospitality and Tourism Employment Survey ran from May 15 to 31 August, 2024. The survey was based on the previous 2022 He Tangata survey (Williamson & Rasmussen, 2022) with minor wording changes and the introduction of new questions to reflect the ever-changing New Zealand workforce.
Core questions from the 2022 survey were retained to enable comparison with the data collected in 2024. Sector-wide consultation and feedback were sought from the following groups regarding the survey design:
■ Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
■ Hotel Council Aotearoa
■ Travel Agents’ Association New Zealand
■ Hospitality New Zealand
■ Restaurant Association of New Zealand
■ Unite Hospitality Union
■ Tourism Industry Aotearoa
■ MBIE Tourism Data Leadership Group
Read the full report here
