Restaurant haven in slow job market

Conor Wilson at Prego. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The sluggish economy has meant that at one upmarket Auckland restaurant the waiting staff are likely to be at least as well qualified as their clientele.

Conor Wilson is a waiter at Prego, in Ponsonby, and has both commerce and law degrees from Auckland University.

The 25-year-old said at least half a dozen floor staff at the restaurant also had tertiary qualifications.

"It's reasonably common because people wait tables through university and then can't find a job so stay where they're at."

Mr Wilson, who has a $70,000 student loan, began working at Prego while studying five years ago but stayed on when he failed to find work as a lawyer after graduating in November 2009.

He said the dole was never an option as he is paid more at Prego than he would be as a junior lawyer.

His colleague Elise Stickley, 26, has a BA in media production and said the money earned in hospitality was a great draw for recent graduates.

Waiting tables gave her the freedom to look after her 11-month-old daughter while still earning more than the starting salaries offered in graduate jobs.

"I love my job at Prego. I've been able to look after her during the day, and raise her myself and not have to send her off to a childcare place.

"And there's definitely a family at Prego, and it's like a whole culture in hospitality. And I'm not hating it, it just wasn't my choice."

Mrs Stickley has searched in vain for a job in advertising since the beginning of last year.

"I understand that there's a lot of graduates, and I understand that the media industry was one of the hardest hit. But in my BA I got a senior prize for academic achievement, I had an A+ average.

"And to get emails back saying 'sorry, you don't have what we want for a graduate job', it's soul destroying. I don't really know what else to do."

Marc Burrage, the chief executive of Hudson, New Zealand's largest recruitment firm, says there is hope on the horizon for graduates as the job market picks up.

Hudson's quarterly employment expectation report released this month revealed the number of employers looking to hire in the next two to three months is the healthiest since 2008.

Mr Burrage said that as the economy improved there would be a greater degree of liquidity in the job market.

"There will be choices for all new employees, and for new grads, that perhaps they didn't have last year or the year before."