U.S. Hotel Job Growth Slowed Down Just Ahead of the Summer Travel Season
Photo Credit: Hotel hiring cooled off ahead of the summer — more a reflection of not enough workers rather than not enough jobs. PxHere
Skift Take
Hotel owners have to boost wages above pre-pandemic trend lines if they want to claw former workers back from outside industries. Until that happens, expect a lot of overworked and overwhelmed staffers doing well above the requirements of a typical hotel job.
One month after shining as a rare bit of optimism in an otherwise disappointing jobs report, the U.S. hotel sector slowed down its pace in hiring much-needed workers before what many anticipate will be one of the busiest seasons for travel on record.
The U.S. hotel sector added 35,000 jobs in May, which was weaker growth than the 54,000 jobs added one month prior, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. This isn’t what the hotel sector needed, as economists last month told Skift the industry needed to maintain April’s job growth momentum — at the very least — to be able to better handle the surge of summer travelers.
Last month’s job growth slowdown is a fresh reminder hotel owners and operators must get more competitive in recruiting workers.
“There are definitely some major issues that the industry is facing right now,” said Patrick Scholes, a managing director of lodging and experiential leisure equity research at Truist Securities. “They have s
