The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest jobs report for November is out, and it’s continuing to show a decline in travel booking jobs. Jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, however, continue to climb.
According to the latest report, the “travel arrangement and reservation services” sector, which the BLS counts under “professional and business services,” lost about 900 jobs from October to November. That follows last month’s 1,000 job decline. Year over year, travel booking lost approximately 21,800 jobs.
The picture is brighter for the overall leisure and hospitality sector, which added 14,000 jobs last month, and was up by 63,000 jobs from a year ago. Zooming in on accommodations, the sector added 2,300 jobs over the past month, and was up by 15,500 jobs over the past year. Last month saw a strong recovery for hospitality, when the sector added 89,000 jobs after losing 98,000 jobs in September due to the impact of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
Overall, the unemployment rate continued to hold steady at 4.1 percent, which was the same as last month, with the number of unemployed persons essentially unchanged at 6.6 million. The unemployment rate and number of unemployed persons were down by 0.5 percent and 799,000, respectively, over last year.
Despite the tepid job numbers for travel booking, major travel agencies are reporting good times ahead for 2018. American Express Travel reports that its international bookings are surging by 44 percent for 2018.
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