Nearly 2 Million Unfilled Jobs in Travel & Tourism Threaten Industry’s Growth

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published its February employment report, noting that leisure and hospitality jobs grew 105,000 in one month, growing the need for workers within the travel and tourism industry to 1.7 million, a large figure that could lead to problems as Americans gear up for what will likely be busy spring and summer travel seasons.

U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman issued a statement about the employment crisis, noting that the need for workers could be solved by issuing more temporary or seasonal worker visas for people from other countries.

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“Despite strong job growth, a staggering 1.7 million leisure and hospitality jobs are open—a concerning figure as we head into the peak summer travel season,” said Freeman. “Travel is essential to our nation’s economy, but its success is reliant on access to workers to serve the traveling public. One way the federal government should address our workforce shortage is to increase the allotment of H-2B visas, which is at least 100,000 short of demand, to provide the industry with the temporary workers it so desperately needs.”

The hospitality industry has been struggling with staffing shortages since the pandemic, with eighty percent of hotels reporting staffing shortages according to data from the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) published just last month.

As a response, hotels and resorts are offering higher wages (with the average wages reaching a record $23 an hour), greater flexibility and better benefit packages than ever before, but these have been only so successful, as immigrants with work visas have historically comprised a significant percentage of the hospitality workforce.

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