500,000 US hotel jobs won’t return this year, lodging group says

Cook Noraldo Saavedra works in the kitchen of the MKT Kitchen restaurant in Coral Gables, Florida, where he works after deciding not to come back to his previous job at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach. 500,000 US hotel jobs won’t return this year, an industry association says.

Even as tourists return to popular destinations, a new report says nearly 500,000 hotel jobs lost in the United States during the pandemic will not return this year.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association released their midyear report with two key findings: One in five of the lodging jobs lost nationwide would not come back by next January, and revenues will be off by $44 billion nationwide from their highs in 2019.

In a state-by-state breakdown, the organization estimated that Florida would be missing more than 44,000 hotel jobs by year’s end. The report did not give a breakdown of Florida’s revenue loss.

Preliminary June numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed more than a million jobs in leisure and hospitality in the state, down 210,000 from the high point in February 2020.

Share