The U.S. Travel Industry Adds New Jobs, Has More Open

Good morning from Skift. It’s Monday, October 10. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

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Episode Notes

The U.S. leisure and hospitality industry recorded substantial job growth in September. However, the hotel segment struggled to add jobs, a sign of its ongoing challenges to fill its large number of vacancies, reports Editorial Assistant Rashaad Jorden.

Hotels added a little less than 7,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in the overall U.S. jobs report released on Friday. While that number is a roughly 55 percent increase from August’s figure, it does little to ease hotel executives’ wider hiring concerns. Ninety-one percent of hotels said they’re unable to fill open positions, according to a recent survey by the American Hotel and Lodging Association. The bureau estimates that the leisure and hospitality sector has 1.4 million openings to fill.

The leisure and hospitality sector added 83,000 jobs in September, representing nearly a third of new jobs created in the U.S. overall.

Next, Hurricane Ian pummeled destinations throughout Florida in the last month, forcing them to grapple with destruction that could take years to overcome. One of them is Lee County. Global Tourism Reporter Dawit Habtemariam writes the county’s lucrative tourism industry faces a long road to recovery.

Although destinations such as Tampa and Orlando are welcoming visitors, tourism to Lee County, located on the Gulf Coast in southwestern Florida, remains paused. Lee County officials said they haven’t established a timeline to resume tourism given the extent of the devastation. Dozens of hotels in Lee County lack water in addition to many of its short-term rental properties being destroyed.

Habtemariam writes the road to recovery for Lee County, which attracts 5 million visitors annually, looks challenging. One Florida official said the loss of tourism sector employees, many of whom lost their homes as well as jobs, will make the recovery difficult. Nearly one in five people in Lee County worked in tourism prior to Hurricane Ian.

Finally, amid an affordable housing shortage for workers in popular tourist areas, a U.S. Federal Reserve Bank executive has challenged such destinations to further regulate short-term rentals, reports Executive Editor Dennis Schaal.

Patrick Harker, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, wrote in a recent essay that tourism-dominated areas lack sufficient housing for workers. He cited the Jersey Shore as an example, where he said short-term rentals have gobbled up a significant portion of the housing supply. Harker also urged local governments to limit the number of short-term rental properties to ensure local residents can find affordable housing.

However, Schaal writes that executives at vacation rental companies tend to shoot down links between their properties and the affordable housing crisis. Merilee Karr, the chairperson of the UK Short-Term Accommodation Association, said it’s easier for authorities to take aim at the industry than build affordable housing.