No applications. The position remains open. The team steps in. Business continues—somehow. This scenario is no longer an exception in the German restaurant and hotel industry, but rather the structural norm. And as long as business is still running, the open position is viewed internally as a manageable problem.
What is systematically underestimated here is that a vacant position is not a neutral state. It is an ongoing source of financial loss—just one that does not appear as a separate line item on any income statement.
A vacancy is not a break. It is a hidden cost that affects time, quality, and team stability—and is therefore rarely fully accounted for.
1. The Hospitality Industry Compared to Other Sectors: Why the Numbers Are Especially Painful
To understand the economic impact of a job opening in the hospitality industry, it is worth taking a look at how it fits into the German labor market.
According to the Federal Employment Agency, the average time a position remained vacant in the hospitality industry from April 2025 to March 2026 was 198 days. That is 33 days above the overall economic average of 165 days. In the industry ranking, the hospitality industry thus ranks third—behind the construction industry (299 days) and transportation and warehousing (207 days), but ahead of agriculture and the manufacturing sector.
| Economic Sector | Ø Vacancy Duration (Days) |
| Construction Industry | 299 |
| Transportation and Warehousing | 207 |
| Hospitality Industry | 198 |
| Agriculture and Forestry | 197 |
| Manufacturing Industry | 171 |
| All economic sectors | 165 |
Source: Federal Employment Agency, April 2025 – March 2026
198 days means: More than six months during which a position is, for all intents and purposes, unfilled. Six months during which the team has to make up for the absence, quality suffers, and operations face capacity constraints.
Added to this is a structural problem that further exacerbates the situation: The IAB Labor Shortage Index, compiled by the Institute for Employment Research, stood at 3.7 points (on a scale of 0–10) in March 2026. This means that in large parts of the German economy—and especially in the hospitality industry—the demand for skilled workers structurally exceeds the available supply. This situation is not cyclical. It is demographic in nature and will continue to worsen in the coming years without a targeted counterstrategy.
2. The Unspoken Misconception: No Cast Means No Costs
At first glance, the logic seems reasonable. If no skilled worker is hired, no salary is paid. Therefore, there are no direct personnel costs.
This conclusion is correct from an accounting standpoint—but wrong from a business perspective. The cost of a vacancy is spread across multiple departments at the same time. Because it is not concentrated in a single budget line item, it is rarely treated with the necessary priority.
2.1 Sample Calculation: Chef de Partie, Medium-Sized Restaurant
The following calculation is based on a typical skilled worker position in the hospitality industry. The assumptions are conservative.
| Parameters | Value |
| Gross annual salary (Chef de Partie) | 36,000 euros |
| Working days per year | 260 days |
| Current value of the position | about 138 euros |
| Importance Factor (Key Operational Role) | 1,5 |
| Vacancy Rate in the Hospitality Industry (BfA 2026) | 198 days |
| Calculated Productivity Loss | approx. 41,000 euros |
Calculation: 138 euros × 1.5 (weighting factor) × 198 days = approximately 41,000 euros in lost productivity
This figure reflects only the direct loss of capacity. In most cases, the actual total costs are significantly higher once all cost drivers are taken into account.
2.2 Comprehensive Cost Accounting: What Cost Calculations Don’t Yet Cover
Overtime premiums and increased personnel costs. When colleagues step in to cover for others, additional costs arise due to overtime premiums, increased workload, and potential burnout risks within the team. Both are measurable—and both come at a cost.
Lost revenue. In an understaffed kitchen or dining room, available capacity is not fully utilized. Fewer dishes, fewer tables, less revenue. This effect is particularly noticeable on busy days—Friday evenings, weekends, and holidays—which are precisely when contribution margins are highest.
Recruiting effort. Job postings, screening applicants, interviews, rejections, and repeating the process. This effort also has a measurable cost: in management time, in team capacity spent on supporting new candidates, and in direct costs for external support.
Decline in quality and customer loyalty. What’s harder to quantify, but nonetheless real: understaffing affects service quality. Longer wait times, limited menus, less attention at the table. Guests notice this—and, when in doubt, won’t return.
3. The Cycle of Understaffing: How Vacancies Create New Vacancies
A job opening is rarely an isolated problem. It is the beginning of a self-reinforcing cycle—unless it is stopped early on.
According to the Federal Employment Agency, the turnover rate in the hospitality industry stood at 60.5 in 2024—the highest figure among all sectors except temporary staffing and agriculture. By comparison, the overall economic average is 29.7. This means that, for every 100 employees in the hospitality industry, there are 60.5 new employment relationships per year. One out of every two positions is filled by a new employee each year.
Chronic understaffing increases the pressure on the remaining team. This pressure accelerates turnover. More turnover means more vacancies. More vacancies mean more pressure. The cycle is well known—it is rarely treated as a systemic issue.
So anyone who treats a single open position as an isolated staffing problem underestimates its systemic impact. Understaffing increases the likelihood of further departures from the existing team—with all the associated costs of re-recruiting, onboarding, and a decline in quality during the transition period.
4. Structural Causes: Why the Local Market Is Not Delivering
The shortage of skilled workers in the German hospitality industry is not a temporary market disruption. It is the result of several interacting factors:
- Demographic Change: The number of people of working age in Germany is declining structurally. According to projections by the Federal Statistical Office, the labor force will shrink significantly by 2040, depending on the immigration scenario.
- Decline in Apprenticeships: The number of new apprenticeship contracts signed in hospitality professions has fallen steadily in recent years. The pool of young talent from domestic training programs is shrinking.
- High Workload and Relatively Low Pay: Many young professionals view the hospitality industry as physically demanding and not very attractive in terms of pay. Competition with other industries for skilled workers is increasing.
- Regional Shortage: In certain federal states, the time a position remains vacant significantly exceeds the national average. During the period under review, Rhineland-Palatinate averaged 206 days—41 days above the national average.
For businesses in economically disadvantaged regions or areas heavily dependent on tourism, this means that the local labor market is permanently unable to meet demand. A strategy that relies exclusively on the domestic labor market will systematically fail in the face of this reality.
5. The Crucial Question — Asked Correctly
Many companies begin their consideration with a legitimate but incomplete question: How much does international recruitment cost?
The strategically relevant question is this: How much does international recruitment cost—and how much does it cost if the position remains unfilled for another 198 days?
If you look at both sides of the equation, in most cases you’ll arrive at a different conclusion than expected. Not because recruiting is cheap, but because leaving a position unfilled is more expensive than assumed—and while the costs of a recruitment effort are limited in time, the costs of a vacancy continue to accrue every day.
Recruiting is not a cost center. Recruiting is the decision to put an end to a money-losing operation.
6. What Businesses Can Do Specifically
Vacancy costs cannot be completely avoided—but they can be managed much more effectively. This requires treating recruitment as a strategic task, not as an administrative response to immediate pressure.
Identify critical positions early on. Don’t wait until a staff member has left to take action. Which positions would have the greatest impact on operations if a staff member were to leave? These positions should be monitored on an ongoing basis.
Formulate job requirements realistically. If you post a job description that the market cannot fill, you’ll only prolong the time the position remains vacant. Realistic job requirements increase the accuracy of the search and shorten the time it takes to fill the position.
Systematically expand the search area. If the local market consistently fails to provide enough candidates, that’s no coincidence—it’s a structural reality. In this context, international recruitment is not a stopgap measure, but a logical consequence.
Approach international recruitment with sufficient lead time. International recruitment processes—including visas, language proficiency tests, credential evaluation, and travel arrangements—take time. If you wait until the pressure is at its peak to start this process, you’ll unnecessarily prolong the time the position remains vacant. Processes initiated early on yield better results.
Make legal certainty a priority. International recruitment is complex: residency rights, work permits, certification procedures, and GDPR-compliant data processing. This complexity should be addressed from the outset by experienced partners—not as an afterthought.
Conclusion: What the Numbers Mean
Average vacancy period of 198 days. Turnover rate of 60.5. Calculated productivity loss of over 40,000 euros for a single skilled worker position. These are not theoretical scenarios—they are the measurable conditions facing the German hospitality industry, as evidenced by current data from the Federal Employment Agency and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).
Vacancies are not just an organizational issue. They are an economic factor that directly influences performance, team stability, and business growth. Companies that recognize this connection early on and take a structured approach make better decisions—with more lead time, less pressure, and a clearer understanding of the actual realities of their market.
MioTalent supports restaurants and hotels in the structured recruitment of qualified professionals—with German points of contact, legally compliant processes in accordance with German law, and success-based billing. We handle the complex parts: candidate selection, visa support, coordination with government agencies, and GDPR-compliant documentation.
You have job openings. We have the process to fill them. Talk to us—with no obligation, in German, and without a sales pitch. → Get in touch now
Sources: Federal Employment Agency (2026): Time to Fill a Vacancy by Economic Sector, April 2025 – March 2026 | Federal Employment Agency (2024): Turnover Rate by Economic Sector | IAB Labor Shortage Index, March 2026 | Statista Skilled Labor Shortage Report Germany 2026
