Winter Sees More Travel Jobs, Fewer Travel Exports, U.S. Travel Reports

Although it’s been a cruel winter, at least one thing has managed to grow in spite of the weather: travel industry employment, according to the U.S. Travel Association, which last week released an analysis of the U.S. Department of Labor’s February jobs report.

“The travel sector added 10,500 jobs in February, according to the Department of Labor’s monthly report — continuing a strong and steady growth trend even through an unusually harsh winter,” U.S. Travel Senior Vice President for Research and Economics David Huether said in a statement.

U.S. Travel also analyzed the U.S. Department of Commerce’s latest report on international trade. Unfortunately, it found, travel exports didn’t fare as well as travel employment.

“Not every metric withstood the chilling effect of the recent weather,” Huether continued. “While other U.S. exports rebounded in January after a dismal performance in December, today’s Commerce Department trade report showed that travel exports (inbound international travel to the United States) began 2014 on a softer note, edging down by $0.2 billion to $15.8 billion in January. While some of the softening in travel trade was a natural correction following very strong growth at the end of last year, the impact of weather-related delays and cancellations on international travel likely curtailed travel spending in the U.S. by international visitors.”

Overall, the sector remains resilient. “Over the past 12 months, travel exports increased 6.8 percent, or 2.5 times faster than the rise of other U.S. exports of goods and services,” Huether concluded. “On the employment side, the travel industry continues to lead the way in U.S. economic growth and recovery, now employing 62,000 more workers than the pre-recession employment peak set in February 2008. While travel industry employment is now more than fully recovered — 13 percent higher since the start of the Great Recession in early 2010 — the rest of the economy is only 92 percent recovered. Travel has added jobs at an 18 percent faster rate than the rest of the economy since early 2010, creating 531,000 jobs.”