U.S. Hotel Unemployment Falls to Pandemic Low
Photo Credit: A falling hotel industry unemployment rate isn't indicative of the end of the sector's labor shortage crisis. Flickr / Global Panorama/Jason Kuffer
Skift Take
The November jobs report sent many mixed signals, but the hotel industry notched a win — even if it is mere optics.
The U.S. hotel industry has something to celebrate from a November jobs report that left many economists scratching their heads.
The accommodation sector’s unemployment rate fell last month from 12.9 percent to 10.5 percent, the lowest seen since the start of the pandemic. That is still above the 4.2 percent national average but also well below the nearly 49 percent unemployment rate seen in April 2020. The falling unemployment rate was a bit of good news in an otherwise confusing jobs report, which showed only 210,000 jobs added when economists were expecting more than 500,000.
Industry experts largely see the hotel unemployment rate strength as an optics win and point to a hotel sector struggling to match employee counts to demand levels.
“The bigger question at this point is how many people are actually looking for jobs,” said Evan Weiss, chief operating officer at LW Hospitality Advisors. “It
