US Cities Most Impacted by Leisure and Hospitality Job Loss and Recovery

COVID-19 has impacted every sector of the economy, but the leisure and hospitality (L&H) industry has been hit particularly hard. This sector encompasses arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodations and food service — all industries significantly disrupted by COVID restrictions. Despite data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) pointing to an overall resurgence in leisure and hospitality, many cities are still struggling to recover these jobs.

MoneyGeek analyzed recent data to determine the cities impacted most by leisure and hospitality job losses, as well as the cities that have recovered the most jobs.

• Between February 2020 and April 2020, almost half of the sector’s jobs disappeared, according to the BLS.
• 2.1 million leisure and hospitality jobs are still missing compared to February 2020’s jobs levels of 16.9 million.
• Despite still missing millions of jobs, the leisure and hospitality industry has gained back 75% of its jobs since its April 2020 low of 8.6 million.
• Recovery isn't uniform. For instance, while Atlantic City, NJ recovered 94% of lost leisure and hospitality jobs as of June 2021, Orlando, FL was still missing 30% of its hospitality positions.

As cities and states reopen their economies, many leisure and hospitality jobs have returned. To assess the cities that have recovered the most leisure and hospitality jobs, MoneyGeek’s data team analyzed 338 metropolitan statistical areas and calculated the change in hospitality job numbers from February 2020 to June 2021. Comparing from February 2020 allowed us to examine each city’s pre-COVID job numbers. We then normalized the recovered jobs based on the city population and the size of the leisure and hospitality sector by calculating the recovered jobs as a percent of the total employment.

In other words, MoneyGeek identified the cities where recovered leisure and hospitality jobs had the largest impact.

For example, by June 2021, Atlantic City, NJ had recovered 27,800 leisure and hospitality jobs, or 94% of the jobs lost. These 27,800 jobs represented a return of 24% of the total jobs in the area, which indicates the magnitude of these recovered jobs relative to the entire Atlantic City job market.

As COVID-19 shut down events and travel, jobs in cities highly reliant on the tourism economy dropped off significantly. MoneyGeek compiled the number of leisure and hospitality jobs lost for each of the 338 metropolitan statistical areas since February 2020. To select the top cities, we calculated the lost jobs as a percent of the total employment in the city to assess where hospitality job losses hurt the most.

For example, as of June 2021, Kahului, Hawaii (the Metropolitan Statistical Area covering Maui, Lanai, and Molokai) had lost 33% of its leisure and hospitality jobs, which translates to a 9.8% decrease in total employment.

MoneyGeek also reviewed the cities that saw the most significant declines in leisure and hospitality jobs in the United States overall. As of June 2021, these larger metro areas accounted for 1.3 million leisure and hospitality job losses.

Leisure and hospitality job numbers were cut in half during the first two months of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Unfortunately, this sector may also be slow to recover in some places.

Jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector and related industries are vital to the economy of many American cities. Losses in this sector have significantly impacted the overall unemployment rate and have even had a ripple effect on other sectors. Large metropolitan areas with a reliance on tourists, travel and gambling are among the hardest hit by COVID-19.

As the nation looks to signs of economic recovery, the leisure and hospitality industry landscape is changing. Many businesses are exploring new models and ways to help people dine safely or connect them from a distance. From curbside pickup and limited capacity dining to virtual concerts and the return of the drive-in movie experience, business owners and employees are looking for opportunities to provide safe entertainment and maintain jobs.

The MoneyGeek data analysis team gathered data of industries by metropolitan statistical area (MSA) published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to generate its listings.

The team reviewed 338 MSAs with leisure and hospitality job data and selected cities to determine the most recovered cities. The final list of most recovered cities was determined based on the MSAs that had over 25,000 leisure and hospitality jobs in February 2020 and then ordered based on the number of recovered jobs divided by the total employment for the MSA in all sectors in February 2020. This calculation normalizes for the size of the city and for the proportion of leisure and hospitality jobs in that city’s economy. Any city that had recovered less than the average job recovery list was removed from the listing of most recovered jobs.

To find the cities that had lost the most hospitality jobs, we calculated the lowest leisure and hospitality employment number since February 2020 versus June 2021’s employment levels to calculate the total lost jobs due to coronavirus. The amount of recovered jobs is calculated as the difference between job numbers in June 2021 and February 2020. An MSA with zero jobs recovered indicates that June 2021 is their lowest month.

To determine the cities hurt the most by leisure and hospitality losses, we calculated the number of jobs lost between February 2020 and June 2021. This number was divided by the total employment for the city in February 2020 to quantify the impact of these lost jobs on overall employment in the city.