Despite high inbound travel numbers (a record of 60 million) and increased tourism spending (+12 percent) in 2010, employment in the tourism industry declined for the third year in a row, according to an article by Danny King in Travel Weekly. The decline totals almost 1.1 million from 2007 to 2010, and likely continued last year as travel companies look to recoup losses or boost productivity before adding new hires. The article is based on updated information from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration last month, which stated:
Clearly, the economic downturn has taken a major toll on this industry. In fact, the three years of declines in 2008, 2009 and 2010 are more than double the number of jobs lost in the three years following 9/11.
King reports that while travel employment data from 2011 is not yet available, the U.S. Travel Association has released information that numbers may be rebounding, although there's no indication yet of when a full recovery will occur:
The travel industry added 11,000 jobs in October — about one out of every eight jobs created in the U.S. — and that more than 200,000 travel jobs have been added since March 2010.
Read the entire Travel Weekly article for more information.