Word in the kitchen is that there is currently a Shanghai-wide shortage of decent staff. Stop your cynical smirking right there! You may think good service skills are a rarity in the city anyway, but things are now at an all-time low. Why? As always, it’s a combination of factors, but the curse word on many restaurateurs’ lips is Expo.

Think about it: there are approximately 200 pavilions, most with some sort of food outlet. I’m no mathematician, but that’s one helluva lot of newly created jobs. And it’s not just the extra positions that are causing problems–some pavilions are attracting staff by offering double salary or lucrative loyalty packages, making it hard for ordinary small-scale restaurants to compete.

Some pavilions keen to attract the most experienced front-of-house staff are paying up to ¥6,000 per month. With standard local wages usually varying between ¥2,500-3,500, this is a huge leap.

Since new Thai restaurant Mithai opened in April, restaurant manager Franck Krynen has been unable to fully staff the eatery. “It’s been a big, big struggle,” he confided. “I couldn’t do lunches for the first month simply because I didn’t have the staff.” Krynen believes that there is Expo-fever among restaurant staff, who are now demanding around 25 percent more after hearing tales of Expo riches. ”The bartenders in particular are a valuable commodity and they know it. Their demands are higher, and if you want a good one, you have to pay the price.”

Oscar Bedolla, the executive director of the two recently-opened Mi Tierra restaurants in the former French Concession and the Mexico Pavilion, believes the competition is fierce even within the Expo site. His restaurants employ around 100 staff and since February, he has seen 25 of them leave for, he suspects, higher-paying pavilions.

“A couple of boys told me they had to return home to sick families and then I saw them working at other pavilions,” he says. “I’ve also heard tales of pavilions paying staff six months in advance of opening in order to secure them.”

Bedolla has tried to counter the exodus by offering his staff longer-term prospects like training and a job contract that goes past October. He’s also promising a loyalty bonus to any staff members who stay for the duration of the Expo.

It may not be such a bad thing if good people start to realize their value and up their demands, even if it does reduce the profit margins of a few restaurants. But with only five months left of the Expo, what’s going to happen after October 31st?

Inquisitive dining columnist Rachel Platt is moving on to greener pastures. Think you can fill her shoes? Find out more here.