Potential Employment Disruptions on South African Restaurants: Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Era Reflections – It’s No Longer Business as Usual

Abstract

The paper presents pre-COVID-19 employment dynamics combined with emerging COVID-19 era disruptions within the restaurant subsector. The study examines the themes which align with employment dynamics such as restaurant operations, employment status, employment demographics and employee income levels and skills required. The paper utilises mixed methods, namely, quantitative using a questionnaire and qualitative using literature. Questionnaire data were analysed using SPSS and presented in the form of tables. The relevant information was extracted from the literature sources relating to the pre-determined themes stated in the article. The results reported that the restaurant subsector has been one of the longstanding businesses creating job opportunities for people in South Africa, employing mostly the vulnerable groups, which are women and youth. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the permanent and/or temporary shutdown of restaurants, which has left numerous people without jobs, causing an increase in the unemployment rate in South Africa. The pre-COVID-19 results indicated skills that are required within the restaurant subsector and the literature has confirmed that these skills continue to be required in the current context. More so, new skills are required during the COVID-19 era. This paper strengthens the extant literature by highlighting the employment dynamics of the restaurant subsector and the disruptions caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for researchers, restauranteurs and government are discussed.