advertisement
Travel Employment Outpaces Rest of U.S. Economy by 34%
More than Half of the Travel Industry Jobs Lost During Recession Have Been Recovered
|
News for the Hospitality Executive |
| WASHINGTON, DC
– David Huether, senior
vice president of economics and research at the U.S. Travel
Association,
provides analysis on today's Labor Department report on February 2012 employment numbers
: "This February, the number of workers employed directly in the travel industry increased by 8,000 to 7.6 million. The major increases in travel jobs were in restaurants, lodging, and amusements/gambling/recreation industries. Last month's employment rise marked the eleventh increase in the past 12 months for the travel industry. "Since February 2011, travel employment has increased by 129,000. And since the employment recovery began, the travel industry has created more than 250,000 new jobs, accounting for more than seven percent of overall job growth since early 2010. This is primarily due to the fact that the pace of job creation in the travel industry has exceeded that of the rest of the economy by 34 percent. "As a result of this faster job growth, the travel industry has now recovered more than half of the 496,000 jobs lost during the great recession, while the rest of the economy has made up just 39 percent. "The economy created 227,000 total jobs in February while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.3 percent. While the overall pace of jobs growth decelerated a bit from the 284,000 gain in January, part of this was due to a 61,000 upward revision in January employment, nearly a quarter of which was due to 14,000 more jobs in the travel industry." Today's travel employment numbers echo positive news in export numbers for the industry, which improved to $12.9 billion in January. Huether is available for further analysis and comment.  The U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the travel industry that generates $1.8 trillion in economic output and supports 14.1 million jobs. U.S. Travel's mission is to increase travel to and within the United States. Visit www.ustravel.org. Follow us on Twitter @ustravel |
| Contact: Robert Bobo (202) 408-2136 [email protected] |