Hospitality businesses in Australia are increasingly turning to third-party recruitment apps to find temporary shift workers as critical staff shortages plague the industry, but some venues say reliance on the apps is not sustainable, reports The Brisbane Times. Recruitment app Supp, a platform for businesses to advertise temporary shifts to hospitality workers, said the number of available shifts had quadrupled since January to about 16,000 per month. At the same time, Sidekicker, which recently secured funding from Seek Investments, has also seen an increase, with weekly worker sign-ups hitting an all-time high in June. Hospitality venue manager Jonathan Mooney said his five Melbourne restaurants and bars started using staffing apps as worker shortages hit last year, however he added that one of his restaurants had now scaled back its usage of the app because it was “unsustainable” due to labour costs being about 30% more than regular staff.

Business leaders say a lack of foreign workers is driving economy-wide labour shortages, with fewer international students and working holidaymakers hurting hospitality venues. A recent Australian Retailers Association poll found 61% of retail businesses said labour shortages had worsened over the past three months.