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The good news continues for the hotel industry, which — although it has a way to go to hit pre-Covid hiring levels — is continuing to make substantial progress in its recovery from the pandemic.
Hotels in the U.S. continued their steady their pace of hiring in August, recording higher job growth in August than in July.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Friday that hotels added roughly 8,600 jobs in August, up from the revised 5,400 jobs added in July. Meanwhile, the broader leisure and hospitality category — which includes hotels — added about 40,000 positions, representing about 21% of the total jobs created in the U.S. last month.
Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, was pleased about the stable job growth.
“But we still need help from Congress to ensure our members can hire enough workers to meet demand,” he said. “That includes establishing an H-2B returning worker exemption, passing the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act, and passing the H-2 Improvements to Relieve Employers (HIRE) Act.”
Leisure and hospitality employment is 1.5% below February 2020 levels, or roughly 260,000 jobs. Meanwhile, hotel employment is down 11% — a figure unchanged from July — from that month, or about 230,400 jobs.
The U.S. added 187,000 jobs in August, a 30,000-job increase from the previous month’s revised figure. The U.S. unemployment increased from to 3.5% to 3.8%.
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Tags: hiring, jobs, jobs report
Photo credit: U.S. hotel hiring increased in August. 10'000 Hours / Getty Images