American travel is worried about the lack of workers in the sector for the peak summer season

By Lori Bharati
On April 7, 2023 Last Updated: 3:25 PM ET, Friday, April 7, 2023

US Travel, a national nonprofit organization that represents the interests of the various segments of the travel industry, responded to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) official release. The employment report for March 2023 showed growth in travel and tourism industry jobs slowed last month.

Total U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 236,000 jobs in March, the slowest monthly increase since December 2020. The leisure and hospitality sector in particular added 72,000 jobs last month. That, while still trending in a positive direction, represents less robust growth than the average monthly gain of 95,000 new jobs recorded each month over the past six months.

As labor shortages continue to be a problem in the industry, US Travel has expressed concern that the sector’s workforce will not be sufficient to handle the expected high travel demand during the peak summer season of 2023.

For the BLS’s latest report, the association calls on the U.S. government to make policy reforms that facilitate the hiring of more seasonal foreign workers to fill the gaps and keep the industry running smoothly. To maintain its full potential as a contributor to the country’s economy.

Geoff Freeman, American Travel Association (Source: American Travel Association)

“The leisure and hospitality hiring reported today is critical as our industry prepares for a busy summer season and the need to fill 1.5 million job vacancies,” US Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman said in a statement released Friday. This sector. Adequate travel power is essential to meet demand and increase revenue in the travel industry. He continued, “The federal government will help address labor needs by increasing the cap on H-2B temporary worker visas and permanently exempting returning workers from the cap.”

Freeman made a similar appeal last month after the BLS’s February employment report revealed that the travel and tourism industry employs about 1.7 million workers as the busy spring and summer travel seasons begin to approach.

“Travel is important to our nation’s economy, but its success depends on finding workers to serve the traveler. There was a “minimum 100,000 demand shortage” to maintain current employment for the purposes, he argued, adding that the limit on these visas should be increased “to provide the industry with the temporary workers it desperately needs.”

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