Boom in travel and tourism eases employment woes of America

The surge in the global travel market has also affected the employment woes of the United States in 2013. The upswing in the tourism industry of U.S.A. employed as many as

11,000 individuals only in December, accounting for 15% of the country’s overall employment gains.

 
The travel industry is 57,000 short of its record employment level in December of 2000. Industry experts expect that if the growth in travel employment continues, a new record level of employment could be reached around the middle of the year in 2014.

“Looking back at 2013, while the overall economy created fewer new jobs during the past 12 months, the 119,000 jobs created by the travel industry was actually 22,000 more jobs than were added in 2012,” said David Huether, senior vice president for economics and research at the U.S. Travel Association. “Since the overall employment recovery began in early 2010, the travel industry has been adding jobs at a 9 percent faster rate than the rest of the economy.”

According to Huether, the travel industry has made up 99 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, compared to 87 percent of the rest of the economy, and is 5,000 jobs short of its pre-recession level of employment.