Entwicklung und Dynamik des touristischen Arbeitsmarktes in Bayern seit 2019

Abstract

"The tourism labor market is facing major challenges, such as the shortage of labor or the high fluctuation of workers in combination with the pronounced seasonal fluctuations in personnel requirements. Added to this were the restrictions and measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While there are already numerous studies on the perception and effects of external shocks on tourism demand, there have so far been only a few tourism studies that deal with the specific consequences of external shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic for the tourism labor market and the companies affected. The aim of this project is to gain a better understanding of the development and dynamics of the tourism labour market in Bavaria. In order to achieve this research objective, a detailed analysis of the tourism labour market in Bavaria was carried out for the years 2019 to 2021, including a differentiated analysis by (sub)sectors and regions. A dynamic labor market model, based on an understanding of the demographic development of a region, forms the basis of the analyzes. The dynamics in the labor market were analysed at the level between the respective tourism sectors and between tourism sectors and non-tourism sectors. The research questions can be divided into an individual and a company level. At the individual employee level, the main question is with which other industries labor is exchanged. At the company level, the study examines whether the dynamics in the tourism sub-labor market have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021) compared to the previous year (2019) and how big the differences are in the length of service between the various sectors. Despite the pandemic-related decline in employment in tourism, Bavaria remains the federal state with the second-largest labor market in tourism. Within Bavaria, the employment shares of people working in tourism sub-sectors are spatially unevenly distributed. The labor markets in southern Bavaria in particular are dominated by the tourism-industry. In connection with the measures to contain the pandemic, the number of people employed in tourism in Bavaria fluctuates significantly. February 2021, around one year after the outbreak of the pandemic, marked the lowest level of employment in the period under review. Overall, employment fell by around 20 percent between 2019 and 2021. This means that the employment losses in the pandemic years in Bavaria are particularly pronounced compared to the German tourism labor market as a whole. Foreign workers play a very important role in tourism labor. In 2019, over a quarter of all workers did not have a German passport. That is over 10 percentage points more than in the non-tourism sectors. This proportion increased in 2021. Around a third of foreign employees come from Italy and Romania. These two nations also dominate among new hires, albeit to a lesser extent than in the workforce. The tourism labor market is particularly dynamic. This means that the average duration of employment is significantly lower than that of other sectors. There is mainly an exchange between companies in the tourism sub-sectors. Even among full-time employees, more than a third spend less than 12 months in the company. In 2020, this increased to 40 percent. The sectors from which employees move in and out of tourism are largely identical. These are primarily temporary agency employment and retail. The frequently lamented shortage of workers in the tourism sub-sectors is therefore also due to the low loyalty of employees to companies. Overall, the firms in the tourism labor market do not succeed in retaining its (full-time) employees. High staff turnover not only causes high costs, but also impairs the development of industry-specific human capital and leads to inefficient work processes. The high proportion of foreign workers highlights how important migrant workers are for the tourism industry." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bartl, E., Brixy, U. & Metzinger, P. (2024): Entwicklung und Dynamik des touristischen Arbeitsmarktes in Bayern seit 2019. (IAB-Forschungsbericht 10/2024), Nürnberg, 32 p. DOI:10.48720/IAB.FB.2410