“When consumer spending goes down and business investment goes down, the level of economic activity goes down. There are less goods and services being demanded ... [and] less demand for workers.”

While there are some signs of easing, the employment market remains very tight in historic terms, Cowgill said: job ad listings are 15.5 per cent higher compared with listings in September the previous year.

However, timesheet and rostering platform Deputy chief Ashik Ahmed said its data was telling a narrative “quite the opposite” to Seek’s, and that the labour market was in fact so tight that venue operators had given up putting job ads online.

“They’re just advertising less. As a matter of fact, nine out of 10 Deputy customers, especially in hospitality, are looking for new staff members,” Ahmed said.

A Deputy report into Australia’s hospitality sector found that 27 per cent of hospitality employers plan on increasing staff hours and 42 per cent plan to raise wages and pay.

But in line with Seek’s data on the increase in job applicants, Ahmed agreed more workers were entering the workforce, such as baby boomers who exited during the pandemic as well as mothers who are now being offered more flexible hours.

“What’s happening now is almost like an Uberisation of the workforce where the business owners are giving far more flexibility and control to the employee about they can choose their work life, as opposed to saying, ‘these are the shifts you’re doing’.”

Deputy data also shows that many people are securing a second job as the economic outlook worsens.

The war for talent in hospitality will become more apparent during Christmas, said Ahmed, who urged consumers to be patient as understaffing leads to longer wait times.

“Be more compassionate to the businesses are short-staffed and not able to provide the service that they should provide,” he said. “People are at a breaking point.”

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