Nearly 500 people apply for just two jobs at pub as work dries up

  • london
  • July 19, 2020
  • Comments Off on Nearly 500 people apply for just two jobs at pub as work dries up
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A pub landlord has given an indication of how the jobs market is starting to look, revealing he had 484 application for just two £9-an-hour bar jobs.

Mick Dore, general manager of the Alexandra pub in Wimbledon, south London, wrote on Twitter: ‘I don’t want to alarm anyone about the economy or anything, but I advertised two bar jobs at 4.30 on Thursday. We’ve had well over 400 applicants. Gulp.’

He added: ‘We’d normally get a dozen or so sensible replies (ie people who don’t live in West Ham and stuff). Not that there’s anything wrong with people who live in West Ham obviously, it’s just miles away.’

Mr Dorre, 53, told the Times he had received applications from former air stewards, restaurant managers and shop workers recently made redundant.

He said the quality of applicants was so high he ended up hiring six people.

Usually, he would have expected to get around a dozen replies from young people mainly with limited restaurant and bar experience.

I don’t want to alarm anyone about the economy or anything, but I advertised two bar jobs at 4.30 on Thursday. We’ve had well over 400 applicants. Gulp.

— mick dore (@14thefrog) July 13, 2020

Replying to his tweet, one man wrote: ‘Recruitment is ridiculous at the moment.

‘We recently had around 300 applicants for a basic admin role we’d normally get 15 or 20 applications for. And a month after the closing date we’re still receiving CVs in response to it.’

Rob Fisher, 40, who runs the Fitzrovia Belle Pub and Hotel in London, said he had also received 400 applications for just a handful of roles.

He said: ‘The quality of people looking for work right now is as good as it ever has been. Unfortunately it’s because of the situation people have found themselves in.’

The paper reported that data from jobs website Indeed showed many more people were searching for jobs compared to this time last year.

There was a 589% increase in the number of searches for ‘supermarket’ roles, maintenance job searches were up 440%, while forklift operators were up 239%.

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