Hotels Aren’t Putting People Back to Work Like Other Industries
Photo Credit: The U.S. hotel industry's extraordinarily high unemployment rate has come down from highs seen in April, but industry leaders fear a stalled recovery is already underway. Pixabay / yayayang1619
Skift Take
U.S. hotel industry employment has improved by 11 points since April, but a stalled recovery and fading summer has analysts cautioning of a pending winter jobs decline.
Jobs continue to add back into the U.S. economy after devastating losses earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the hotel industry still has little to celebrate.
U.S. employers added 1.8 million jobs in July, bringing the overall unemployment rate down to 10.2 percent from a high of nearly 15 percent in April, according to the monthly jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics out on Friday. The Labor Department continues to cite the hospitality industry as a key driver of job growth in recent months.
But the hotel sector is still struggling at a 38 percent unemployment rate — down from a nearly 49 percent high reached in April.
“The fact that [unemployment numbers] are slightly better than a few months ago doesn’t take away from the problems that we face,” said American Hotel & Lodging Association CEO Chip Rogers.
The hotel industry’s continued disproportionate share of high unemployment is tied to tem
