Numerous jobs in the hotel sector are still lying vacant due to the persistent nationwide workforce crisis, despite U.S. hotels increasing employment opportunities in June. Latest government data has revealed that U.S. hotels added 700 jobs to their payrolls, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) said in a statement.
Although total employment stands at nearly 1.92 million, as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it’s still over 196,000 less workers in the industry than before the pandemic. BLS has also revised down the total number of hotel jobs in the U.S., eliminating job gains for the industry that were reported previously.
Hotels continue to offer high wages, perks and workplace flexibility to attract and retain workers, AHLA said. Since the pandemic, average hotel wages (+26%) have shot up over 15% faster than average wages in the general economy (+22.2%). Despite these changes, there are still tens of thousands of hotel jobs lying vacant in the U.S., AHLA said citing Indeed.
While there were 8.1 million job openings in the U.S. (as of May), there are just 6.6 million unemployed people to fill these jobs, data from the BLS revealed.
Midway through the year, the hotel industry is lagging behind where it should be, in terms of employment, despite the near-record high wages and increasing benefits and flexibility, said AHLA Interim President & CEO Kevin Carey. “Both Congress and the administration can provide relief to our members, many of whom are small business owners, and AHLA will continue to call for action to expand the pool of available workers.”
AHLA POLICY PRIORITIES
AHLA called upon the Department of Homeland Security to make available around 65,000 additional H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas to help expand the workforce, under authority that Congress gave it as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act.
The association also urged Congress to pass the following bills to expand the workforce:
- The Closing the Workforce Gap Act of 2024: This would replace the “arbitrary” yearly cap of 66,000 H-2B guest worker visas with a new system based on requirements.
- The H-2 Improvements to Relieve Employers (HIRE) Act: This seeks to expand the H-2A/H-2B labor certification period to three years and permanently authorize the waiver of in-person interviews for returning workers. The Act will make it easier for qualified workers to find employment in sectors which are struggling to hire and retain adequate number of employees. The bill would also offer critical relied to seasonal small business hotels and facilitate the continued recovery of the hotel industry.
- The Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act: This would allow people seeking asylum to be eligible to work after 30 days since they applied for asylum, subject to certain conditions. Currently, asylum seekers are legally not permitted to work for at least six months and have to depend on the assistance from local governments and communities.
