U.S. Travel Association Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Policy Tori Emerson Barnes issued the following statement on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January employment report, which also featured revised data for the past several months confirming that 10% of leisure and hospitality jobs now remain lost, accounting for an overall 61% of the job losses due to the pandemic:

“While the overall jobs report today may be good news for some, the revised BLS data now confirms an even bigger revelation, that 61%, or nearly two-thirds, of all jobs still lost due to the pandemic are in the Leisure & Hospitality sector. The uneven recovery of the travel sector is due in large part to the lack of inbound international travelers, and the deep reduction in business travel and professional meetings and events. There could not be a more pressing time for Congress to implement short-term priorities to stimulate this vital contributor to the U.S. economy and rebuild American jobs.” 

Measures before Congress to aid the recovery of the travel industry include:

• A higher cap on H-2B visas, to ease the absence of labor for the over one million job openings in the leisure and hospitality industry
• Emergency support for Brand USA through passage of the Restoring Brand USA Act
• Targeted, temporary tax credits and deductions to stimulate spending on business travel, live entertainment and in-person events

Additional funding for relief grants to severely impacted travel businesses.