Employment in the leisure and hospitality industry reached its highest monthly level since February 2020 last month, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
In December 2023, employment levels reached 16.8 million jobs, up from 16.7 million in November and 16.3 million in December 2022. December's job total was approximately 163,000 jobs below the 16.9 million jobs in the sector reported in February 2020, right before the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the leisure and hospitality industry added 39,000 jobs per month throughout 2023 — less than half of the average monthly job gain in 2020, which was 88,000 jobs per month.
Despite the rising employment numbers, labor remains among the main concerns plaguing hoteliers. When adjusted for the increase of hotel room supply across the country, staffing is still relatively down compared to pre-pandemic levels, said Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality for CoStar Group.
“Despite positive [revenue per available room] growth expectations, many owners are concerned about the increase in expense line items and the corresponding impact on their bottom line,” he said. “Labor costs are a significant driver of overall expenses and the lack of workers in the industry continues to drive wages up. Even though the BLS data shows a return to pre-pandemic employment numbers, the industry has grown room count by over 3% since 2020 and so we remain understaffed.”