French restaurants are struggling to hire staff, and employees often only stay for a few months. According to unions, the sector’s declining appeal is largely due to low wages and difficult working conditions.
In 2025, there were more than 120,000 vacant restaurant jobs, according to state employment agency France Travail. And since the Covid-19 pandemic, staff turnover has exceeded 50 percent.
It's a picture recognised by Valentina Costantino, who owns an Italian restaurant in Paris's 15th arrondissement, in the southwest of the city. She says she struggles to keep new employees.
"They come for a trial day, but in the end they're too tired. Luckily, I manage to find a few extras who are studying and therefore need to work. But sometimes I'm on my own, I have no choice."
For one 23-year-old former waitress who prefers to remain anonymous, working conditions explain the high turnover in the sector. She says she finally had enough of the job, after working in several restaurants in her hometown.
"I started working in restaurants at the age of 15, completely illegally, which is very common. I was paid under the table. You work 12 hours but only get paid for eight, you don't see your friends or family, you go to bed at 3am and the next day you have to get up at 8 or 9am to be at work at 10."
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'How do we reward versatility?'
When she sees her former colleagues accepting this, alongside abuse from managers, she still feels angry.
"My manager told me, you're a poison for the company, nobody wants you, we're just waiting for one thing – for you to leave."
For the CFDT hotel, tourism and catering union, pressure on employees stems from increasingly limited staffing levels since the Covid crisis.
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The way work is organised in restaurants also requires employees to be versatile.
"This means that there are no specific, qualified skills involved," explains Zineb Belambri, CFDT general secretary. "Anyone can do it, so it's undervalued. People need to be trained, and this training justifies proper remuneration. How do we reward versatility?"
However, he adds, employee training is difficult to implement because staffing levels fluctuate greatly.
Half of all contracts in restaurants are part-time, representing around 500,000 jobs.
This article has been adapted from the original version in French by Antoine Ellis.
