About 7.6 million people, or 5.7 percent of the U.S. workforce, held tourism-related jobs in March, the association estimates. The travel industry accounted for “a substantial component” -- 2.7 percent -- of 2010 gross domestic product, according to a Jan. 19 statement from the White House.
These companies need people with diverse skills for jobs that can’t be outsourced, Huether said. The number of Americans working at hotels, motels and casino hotels rose 2.9 percent in February to 1.6 million from the same month in 2010, outpacing a 2.7 percent increase for all employees, data from the Labor Department show.
Marriott International Inc. (MAR), the largest publicly traded U.S. hotel chain, has forecast that its U.S. staff will rise 6 percent this year to 212,000 from about 200,000 as of Dec. 31, Laura Paugh, senior vice president of investor relations, said in a telephone interview. Marriott operates hotels in all 50 states, and bookings nationwide have been “quite strong,” with growth driven by leisure, foreign and business travelers.
The “good news” is that Marriott is “filling jobs when they become vacant,” a change from the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009, when the Bethesda, Maryland-based company was reducing hours, Paugh said. “Occupancy is high enough that most people are working a full shift again.”
That’s a reflection of a “pretty solid” mid-cycle recovery in lodging that began in mid-2009, said Joel Simkins, an analyst in New York at Credit Suisse Group AG. Occupancy, at 63.6 percent in March, is approaching historic rates, as the return of business travel, which “really got hammered” during the recession, is driving the rebound in bookings, he said.
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