A recent study released by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) in conjunction with Oxford Economics has posited that U.S. hotels—and the hospitality industry overall—account for nearly one in 25 jobs for the entire U.S. workforce.
According to the study, which is broken down by state, U.S. travelers spent more than $690 billion in 2022 for expenses related to transportation, lodging, dining and entertainment, and retail shopping. Conversely, hotel staff were paid more than $100 billion in total compensation. As of March, national hotel wages averaged approximately $23 per hour.
Amazingly, the sector is actually still short about 250,000 workers from its total in February 2020, the last pre-pandemic data pool. The study estimates that more than 100,000 of those positions could be viably restaffed.
