Pubs, restaurants, cafes and hotels lost the majority of their staff at the start of the pandemic with many finding jobs in other sectors or returning to their home country.
Tourism and hospitality is one of the biggest employers in the country and employed over 22,500 people in Cork before the pandemic.
Speaking to RedFM News, head of Visit Cork Seamus Heaney says the sector must react:
"Personally, I think recruitment is going to be a challenge going forward. I think a lot of people have left the industry which is very sad. They've gone to look at other options. Some of the Eastern European staff have not come back yet. I think there's going to be a hard recruitment drive taking place across the hospitality industry over the next couple of months. It's not a challenge, a year ago, we would have seen but it's a challenge now. It's a challenge for a lot of businesses."
