World Cup matches drove hospitality workforce expansion rather than longer hours

Hospitality employees worked 4% more shifts on England match days.

Hospitality businesses responded to England's World Cup matches by expanding the number of workers on their rosters rather than extending the hours of existing staff, according to new analysis of anonymised data from 220,000 UK hospitality workers by workplace finance provider Stream.

Hospitality employees worked 4% more shift hours on England match days compared to equivalent non-match days. After accounting for normal seasonal trading patterns against 2025, England fixtures produced a 2.8% uplift in hours worked.

The most striking finding was the composition of that increase. Some 68% of the football-related rise in shift hours came from employees who had joined their employer within the previous 90 days, despite recent hires typically accounting for only 13% of hours worked.

Younger workers saw the largest increases. Employees under 25 worked 8.4% more shift hours on average on match days, compared with 2% for those aged 25 to 34.

Midweek fixtures produced the biggest staffing responses, with shift hours up 5.6% for the Croatia match and 4.9% against Ghana.

Peter Briffett, chief executive and co-founder of Stream, said the findings pointed to the growing importance of workforce flexibility for hospitality operators.

"Our analysis suggests employers responded to World Cup demand by bringing more people into the workforce, rather than simply asking existing teams to work longer hours," Briffett said. "That flexibility has become vital for employers operating on tight margins and managing unpredictable peaks in demand."