Fáilte Ireland’s 2025 labour market report offers crucial insights.
We met with Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Tourism Careers, Sarah Dolly, who worked on the research, to discuss the report and ways the industry can rise to meet the challenges identified.
The one constant of the tourism and hospitality industry is it never stands still. It’s a living, breathing ecosystem dependent on the synergy of its parts, and ever vulnerable to falling out of balance due to internal and external stressors. Labour is its lifeblood, and as Ireland’s National Tourism Development Authority, Fáilte Ireland knows ongoing research is crucial to pinpoint the current state of the industry’s labour market, as well as recognise its patterns, identify strengths and weaknesses, and strategise for futureproofing.
The organisation recently published its annual 2025 Tourism Careers Labour Market Research, in partnership with Jobs.ie, which explores the predominant labour issues affecting the sector today.
Hotel & Restaurant Times met with Sarah Dolly, Head of Tourism Careers, Fáilte Ireland, to talk about the key takeaways from the report and her own reflections on how the industry can respond to the challenges identified if it is to survive and thrive.
Sarah tells us it’s important to consider this year’s research in relation to Fáilte Ireland’s 2021 report.
“Post-pandemic, the biggest challenge businesses had was getting skilled talent,” she says. “We undertook the 2021 report to get a sense of the extent and nuance behind that, and the findings laid bare the scale: 40,000 vacancies across the sector; 1 in 3 people were new to the industry, which highlighted the skills gap; and acute retention difficulties in all roles, but particularly chefs and managers. The report also showed people were quickly promoted into management roles who didn’t
necessarily have the adequate skillset required, and underlining all that was the persistent negative perception of tourism and hospitality careers.”
Sarah says the 2025 report shows there has been huge progress made in the last four years to rebuild and retain the workforce, as well as challenge misconceptions about careers in the industry. This, she says, is due to a myriad of dynamic factors, and not one ‘silver bullet.’
On a practical staffing level, the report showed difficulty hiring managers and supervisors dropped from 55 per cent in 2021 to 29 per cent in 2025. Retention of chefs also improved, with 39 per cent of employers reporting little or no difficulty, up from 27 per cent in 2024. In terms of pay, 62 per cent of workers reported pay conditions in the sector have improved, including basic pay and remuneration for unsocial hours, such as bank holidays. Better basic pay is cited as the top factor in attracting and retaining staff.
Sarah says while the results are positive, it’s important not to become complacent: “Employers have really made their people a priority since 2021, but the research does show progress has plateaued. I know that businesses are facing many pressures at the moment, but if that plateau continues, we could fall behind on the progress made.”
Attracting workers to the sector has long been a challenge, but the 2025 research shows 86 per cent of workers see tourism as a long-term career, with 51 per cent citing passion for the job as a key motivator, rising to 72 per cent for chefs. Sarah tells us Trojan work has been done to raise awareness around the viability of tourism and hospitality careers, but misconceptions still exist.
“The lack of perceived clear pathways is a key challenge,” she says. “The idea that tourism and hospitality work is a job and not a career still exists, and that’s a barrier to getting people into the sector who would really suit it. The pandemic made these perceptions worse, particularly around stability and then there were news stories highlighting poor manager-employee relations and working conditions.
Anyone in the tourism sector knows you can progress very quickly to management level, and often employers have excellent management training programmes and initiatives, so we’re trying to spotlight that, particularly at secondary level with teachers and guidance counsellors. Guidance counsellors and teachers have every sector in the country competing for their time and attention, so we have to make it as easy as possible by providing strong evidence of good employment in the sector, such as authentic examples of young professionals thriving in the industry: they’ve done the degree or apprenticeship, they are working with a great employer, and can see a clear career pathway over the next five years.”
Retention is also a persistent challenge, and Sarah says the businesses with the best approach are those that invest in their staff. “The 2025 research shows opportunities for learning and development are cited as key drivers for staying in the sector. I’ve seen great examples recently of businesses implementing clear induction plans that focused on six months of on-the-job and structured learning following, the employer offering staff advice on career possibilities and a plan to help them progress.
Employers who are doing this well are finding that people who thought they’d only be there a few months decide to stay to pursue a career.”
However, the reality is not all businesses can do this. 45 per cent of businesses surveyed in the 2025 report said despite wanting to offer training and development, lack of resources was a barrier. “It’s certainly very challenging for businesses right now,” says Sarah. “However, we’re in a competitive labour market, so if we’re not anticipating, we’ll be firefighting. Even if you’re not looking to hire new staff, you want to retain and build the agility of your existing team. There are things smaller employers can do, like use Fáilte Ireland’s free learniFI platform for inductions and professional development.
Employees in the sector really value the flexibility their jobs offer as well as the positive working environment and working as part of a team. Increasingly, they want opportunities for development and progression and for their upskilling to be recognised and this is very much the case across the wider economy too which really underlines the need for employers to focus on how they can upskill and develop their talent”.
We ask Sarah what steps need to be taken to make this ideal a reality. Again, she tells us there is no one silver bullet, but the industry, hospitality and tourism organisations, and the Government must work together and commit to taking real, meaningful action.
“Tourism and hospitality is a wide sector with so many different roles, so we need to ensure there are multiple routes in,” she says. “We know that good work is being done to drive greater links between further and higher education and enterprise. There’s also a big shift towards skills-based learning, with employers really valuing skills and competencies. Promoting academic pathways is still a huge focus, as we know that’s an important pipeline, particularly for managers. Apprenticeships play an important role too, and bodies are looking into expanding the offering as the earn-as-you-learn model is very appealing to young people.”
