Where are all these jobs if hospitality is supposedly crying out for people?

[Comefromaway]

Dd has applied for hundreds of jobs in retail and hospitality both in the city she is currently studying and our home city. She drives and has experience working with children and working for an age compliance auditing company.

She has had no reply apart from one company in the city she is moving to in September to study (a theatre who is currently closed but are opening in the summer).

All I keep hearing is that there is no excuse for students not to be able to find work. The hospitality industry is crying out for people. She needs to work to fund her studies (postgrad so the loan available doesn't even cover all the fees).

@Comefromaway

It's a real catch 22. How do you get experience?

The interview dd has is for a theatre usher. Dd studies performing arts and has volunteered front of house at college shows. She also volunteered at the local library when she was younger. Of course we expect they have had loads of applications so she may not get it.

It seems that the kids who manage to get retail jobs seem to know someone who already works there.

My DD volunteered at a charity shop to get retail experience, then applied for to be Christmas temp staff in another local shop. She's now working in high street retail and will transfer between stores when she goes off to university in September.

However it took 200+ applications before she got the high street retail job and she had no connections in any of the places she worked.

Golf clubs and racecourses are good sources of casual labour where I am

Also consider gig economy type jobs - have a look at Amazon Flex since she has a car, or any local restaurants doing deliveries

Football clubs also ideal jobs when they reopen up.. I know one girl who was at Liverpool uni who worked at the Club... Paid very well too.

I live Manchester City centre, loads of bars/ restaurants are advertising for staff here
I see them on Twitter a lot too

My DD has been through this, struggled to get work for a year. She started looking at festivals and managed to get the occasional festival work, cricket and racecourses. Had her lucky break, contacted a supermarket overlooked by many for lockdown work, had 34 pw and that got extended from one month to five months. Went back to uni and she struggled with lack of contact, so came home - they took her back on and still there eight months later. It'd hard, but just keep trying.

As always, it's a different situation in different areas, subject to local conditions.