The unemployment rate in the travel industry fell again in July, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Despite the overall unemployment rate holding steady at 4.3 percent, the unemployment rate for the leisure and hospitality sector declined year over year, from 6.0 percent in July 2016 to 4.9 percent in July 2017.
That follows another year over year decline in the unemployment rate in June, when it fell from 6.6 percent in June 2016 to 6.1 percent in June 2017.
At the same time, job growth in the travel industry slowed slightly in July, according to the BLS. The leisure and hospitality industry added 1,000 jobs in July, down from 2,000 additional jobs one year ago. Job growth has also been declining for the past three months, from 15,000 additional jobs in May 2017 to 13,000 in June to 1,000 in July.
Overall, the economy added 209,000 nonfarm jobs in July, according to the BLS. The labor force participation rate also held largely steady in July, at 62.9 percent, as did the employment-population ratio, which remained at 60.2 percent. The employment-population ratio did, however, increase slightly year over year, by 0.4 percent.
The decline in job growth comes at the same time as more travel agents are getting ready to retire, according to a recent report by Hot Travel Jobs. 89 percent of travel agent respondents to a recent survey said that they had no plans to retire or leave the travel industry in 2015, while only 69 percent said the same in 2016.
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