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Even with record average salary, bars and restaurants face difficulty hiring professionals in Brazil, while specialized roles gain importance in business operations and expose a bottleneck affecting service, kitchen, management, and the routine of eating out.
Bars and restaurants are experiencing a paradox in the Brazilian job market: even with the average salary at the highest level in the historical series reported by the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants, the sector still faces strong difficulty in filling vacancies.
According to a survey by Abrasel, 90% of entrepreneurs state that hiring new employees is a difficult or very difficult task, a scenario that pressures operations of different formats, from traditional restaurants to snack bars, cafes, bars, and specialized establishments.
Although eating out usually serves as an entry point into the formal market, even for people without previous experience, hiring is hindered by insufficient qualifications, low demand for certain roles, and practical demands of the operational routine.
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Within kitchens and dining areas, the problem is more pronounced in positions that depend on pace, technique, service discipline, and the ability to work during peak hours, when the pressure for speed and quality increases.
Record average salary does not solve hiring difficulty
According to Abrasel, data from the National Household Sample Survey indicated that the average salary in the sector reached R$ 2,222, the highest average value in the series cited by the entity.
Despite the increase in remuneration, bars, restaurants, snack bars, cafes, and other eating out establishments continue to report obstacles in rebuilding teams, expanding staff, and retaining professionals in essential roles for operation.
Among the reasons pointed out by entrepreneurs, the search for well-qualified workers appears as the main obstacle, cited by 64% of respondents in the Abrasel survey, an index that shows the gap between open positions and available profiles.
Right after comes the lack of interest in the vacancies, mentioned by 61% of entrepreneurs, which broadens the understanding of the problem beyond salary and involves working hours, retention, availability, and candidates’ expectations.
Unattractive hours, high competition for the same professionals, and the migration of workers to other areas also appear among the reported difficulties, especially in an activity marked by weekends, holidays, night shifts, and peak times.
For many candidates, a more predictable schedule can weigh in the decision to accept or decline a position, while establishments in the sector need to maintain full teams precisely during periods when customer flow increases.
Sushiman, barbecue chef, and head chef become bottlenecks
In specialized positions, the bottleneck becomes even more visible because certain roles require accumulated experience, technical mastery, and quick adaptation to the standard of each establishment, without relying solely on basic training after hiring.
According to Abrasel, sushiman and barbecue chef are among the most difficult positions to fill, with 88% of entrepreneurs classifying the hiring difficulty as high or very high in these roles.
Following are head chef, with 81%, and manager, with 78%, positions that combine operational responsibility, decision-making, and direct influence on the quality delivered to the customer during the establishment’s operation.
The difference between an entry-level position and a technical role helps explain part of the challenge, as assistants can gradually learn internal processes, while specialized professionals need to arrive with a more consolidated practical repertoire.
In Japanese restaurants, for example, the work of a sushiman involves preparation, cutting, assembly, proper food preservation, and visual standardization of dishes, activities that require technical care and consistency throughout the service.
In steakhouses and meat-focused establishments, the barbecue chef needs to master preparation points, cuts, cooking time, and service flow, maintaining quality even when demand increases during peak hours.
In the command kitchen, the head chef concentrates responsibilities over the team, menu, production organization, and maintenance of the standard delivered to the customer, as well as coordinating stages that directly affect the establishment’s reputation.
Management also weighs on the scarcity of professionals
In leadership positions, the difficulty in hiring takes on another weight, as managers of bars and restaurants deal with staff scheduling, customer service, stock control, cash operations, and supplier relationships.
During the establishment’s operation, this professional also needs to resolve conflicts, reorganize teams, and respond quickly to unforeseen events, especially in establishments with high customer flow and operations concentrated during peak hours.
The survey by Abrasel shows that 20% of business owners state that the salaries desired by candidates are above the establishments’ payment capacity, a point that reveals a tension between the need for hiring and financial limits.
Many businesses need to expand or replenish teams, but they operate with margins pressured by rent, energy, food, taxes, app fees, labor charges, and fluctuations in customer traffic throughout the week.
Even in this scenario, bars and restaurants continue hiring and training workers, playing a significant role in the professional integration of people seeking their first job or trying to enter a new activity.
The Abrasel survey indicates that 92% of industry business owners admit people seeking their first job or without experience in the area, a fact that reinforces the importance of internal training in the companies’ routine.
Training, benefits, and awards enter the competition for workers
To attract and retain employees, establishments adopt strategies that go beyond the monthly salary, trying to reduce turnover and make staying more viable in roles marked by pressure, intense work hours, and direct contact with customers.
According to Abrasel, 51% offer performance awards, while 40% invest in courses and training, 39% provide benefits such as health plans, scholarships, or vouchers, and 36% choose to increase salaries.
Measures such as flexible hours and offering night transportation after shifts also appear, resources used to address practical difficulties of the work routine and improve the attractiveness of the positions.
The competition for qualified workers occurs in an activity present in the daily life of Brazilians, catering from quick meals at lunchtime to nighttime leisure, tourism, family gatherings, and commemorative dates.
When there is a lack of staff, the impact can reach the service time, the ability to open all shifts, the speed of the kitchen, and the quality of the experience offered to the customer in the dining area.
This scarcity also reveals changes in the relationship between workers and operational positions, as remuneration remains important but shares space with the work environment, predictability, professional growth, benefits, commuting safety, and training.
Lack of staff affects service, kitchen, and revenue
The problem becomes more sensitive because bars and restaurants depend on complete teams to operate efficiently, especially when the dining area, kitchen, cashier, stock, and management need to function in a coordinated manner at the same time.
A hall without enough attendants, a kitchen without trained professionals, or a grill without an experienced worker can limit the number of customers served, reduce the speed of orders, and directly affect revenue.
Abrasel also points out that retaining already trained employees is a challenge for the sector, marked by high turnover and recurring costs of selection, adaptation, and training of new professionals.
Each departure represents a new training process and temporary loss of productivity, an impact that tends to be greater in technical roles, where replacement depends on accumulated experience and mastery of the house standard.
In this environment, traditional roles in the food service industry have gained new weight in the job market, ceasing to be just internal functions to become decisive positions in the operation and reputation of businesses.
Sushi chef, grill master, head chef, and manager influence menu, service, quality, production pace, and growth capacity, factors that help explain why these positions have become bottlenecks for so many entrepreneurs.
If bars and restaurants are paying higher average salaries and still find it difficult to hire, what is really missing to make these positions more attractive in Brazil?
