Hotel Jobs Report Shows Many Workers Still Aren’t Coming Back
Photo Credit: A weak jobs report for the hotel sector punctured the idea federal unemployment benefits were somehow keeping hospitality employees from looking for work. Flickr / Thank You (21 Millions+) views
Skift Take
Time to find a new talking point for earnings season. Major hotel CEOs over the summer blamed their hiring issues on the fact furloughed employees received an extra $300 in unemployment benefits from the pandemic relief bill. The benefits lapsed, and hotels are still having a hard time hiring.
The second consecutive month of weak job gains for the hotel sector swats away a major hotel CEO talking point. Don’t blame the labor shortage crisis on unemployment benefits.
The U.S. only added 194,000 jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. This comes well below economist expectations that at least 500,000 jobs would have added back to the economy last month. The leisure and hospitality sector, typically a major source of job growth, only added 74,000 jobs while the hotel industry added a meager 2,000.
The hospitality employment headwinds are chalked up to waning summer leisure travel demand and the Delta variant spreading across the U.S. But it also takes a lot of air out of the argument the extra $300 in weekly federal unemployment benefits that expired in early September were somehow keeping a major part of the labor pool from looking for work.
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