In May, job growth exceeded expectations in several sectors, including leisure and hospitality. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the U.S. added 42,000 jobs in that category — an increase of about 0.2% from the previous month.
It’s leisure and hospitality season, with summer travel increasing and more people heading to restaurants and bars. This demand for fun, plus rising wages across the country, which was also highlighted in Friday’s numbers, translates into more jobs.
Prices at restaurants and entertainment venues may be higher than in the past, but we Americans like to treat ourselves.
“The travel and tourism industry has had a strong recovery post-COVID,” said Rich Harrill, director of the International Tourism Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. “Some of this is still stabilizing, but we still see strong growth in tourism. employment in the United States.”
Per Sean Snaith, director of the Economic Forecasting Institute at the University of Central Florida: “Owners of restaurants and hotels and other leisure and hospitality-related industries need to hire additional workers.”
While spending and hiring are on the rise, the leisure and hospitality industry looks a little different than it did in the past.
Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research at the National Restaurant Association, said people are spending more on takeout and delivery.
For table service, however, “this segment now has more than 230,000 fewer positions than before the pandemic. So overall, industry traffic patterns are dramatically different as a result of the pandemic,” he said.
Restaurants, which are expected to hire more than half a million seasonal workers this summer, have also changed who they are hiring, Riehle said.
Its staff demand is widening the age range: “Young people aged 16 to 19 are much more likely to work in industry than before the pandemic, and the same also applies to older groups, for example 60 years old or more”, he added.
These older workers can be a huge asset to an industry that is constantly hiring. Maybe they’re getting a summer job to supplement their retirement income.
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