Hospitality is one of the world’s fastest growing industries. The ability to help someone, meet their needs, or simply make them feel at home is an important component of almost every business today. That means even non-typical businesses are hiring hospitality associates to form beneficial relationships with prospects and customers.
The State of the Hospitality Industry
One new job is added every 2.5 seconds to the hospitality industry.
With such an influx of new jobs, it is easy to believe that finding employment within this industry is easy. Unfortunately it is not. Even though the hospitality is the #1 employer in the United States after government positions, it also has a higher than average unemployment rate that is affecting workers within this industry.
Critical Hospitality Statistics
1. Tourism is a Top 3 employer in 32 states.
2. As of February 2014, the unemployment rate in this industry was 10.3%.
3. Even with high unemployment rates, there were 596,000 open hospitality jobs in January 2014.
Takeaway: With over half a million open positions in the hospitality industry and an unemployment rate that is nearly 3 points higher than the national average in the United States, there are three options: employers are looking to get a discount on their next new hires, there aren’t enough qualified new hires in the unemployment pool, or unemployed workers would rather stay unemployed. Whatever the case may be, there is an opportunity to find good work in this field if you’re out of work.
Other Hospitality Statistics to Consider
1. Management positions within this industry are expected to grow up to 35%.
2. Despite over 14 million employed workers, union membership within this field is extremely low, at just 2.7%.
3. The last time the hospitality industry retracted jobs in the United States was Q3 of 2012.
4. The average employee in this industry makes $13.76 per hour.
5. The average employee in the hospitality industry works part-time, just over 25 hours per week.
6. Hospitality industry workers that are represented by a union make 20% more in wages compared to their counterparts.
7. This industry has a low injury rate, at 4 incidents per 100 workers in 2012.
8. Over the last 3 years, wages in this industry have become stagnant, growing at an average of just 1% per year.
9. Employees with management responsibilities make over $2 per hour more than non-management employees.
10. The hospitality industry adds $3.4 trillion to the global economy every year.
11. 212 million people are employed globally within this industry.
12. 768,000 people either quit or were fired in January 2014 in the United States.
Takeaway: Providing hospitality components to guests is a relatively safe position and one that can pay well, but may not offer full-time compensation. That’s incredibly important in the United States, where the amount of hours an employee works makes one eligible for worker-provided health care. The fact that union representation has a dramatic increase on wages should also encourage hospitality workers to look at being represented in the future.
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