Dozens of Questions: Has hospitality employment recovered from COVID-19? And will Trump's policies impact the sector?
Photo of famed tourist destination, Bourbon Street, in New Orleans, Louisiana, by Kristina Volgenau via Unsplash.
The tourism industry was deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and now may face new threats due to recent economic uncertainty and related Trump administration tariff and immigration policies
by MAYA CHARI | June 2, 2025
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Editor’s note: We recently collaborated with Marketplace to create “The Marketplace Dozen,” a dashboard of key economic indicators that provides a quick read on the health of the economy. Naturally, the data raises almost as many questions as it answers. Our Ten Across data journalism fellow, Maya Chari, who is also the chief technical architect of the Dozen, set out to answer some of them.
Employment in the leisure and hospitality sector, which dropped by 46% between March and April 2020, now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of workers in the hospitality industry was 3% higher in April 2025 than it was in April 2019.
But the picture varies significantly by state. California, Texas, and Florida, in that order, are the states with the highest total numbers of hospitality workers. In California, employment in leisure and hospitality is still 1% lower than it was in 2019. Travelers to the Bay Area, many of whom come from China and other Asian countries, were slower to return than others due to reduced airline service to the United States after the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in Texas, employment in the sector has grown by 9% since 2019. In Arizona, it’s surged by 11%. Florida has also seen a modest increase of 6%.
In Louisiana, however, employment in the sector is still 5% lower than it was in 2019. The situation is starker in New Orleans, where employment in the sector has dropped 11%. In 2023, the number of visitors to the greater New Orleans area was 13% lower than in 2019 while the number of visitors to Louisiana as a whole was 19% lower.
Some economists cite the cancellation or movement online of conventions as a factor. New Orleans also dealt with significant damage from Hurricane Ida in 2021, compounding the effects of the pandemic on businesses. The sluggish return of tourism is partially to blame for Louisiana’s incomplete economic recovery from COVID-19.
There are some signs of hope. Hotel occupancy in downtown New Orleans reached 86% during this year’s Mardi Gras, up from 81% last year — but still substantially below the 95% occupancy rates often reached in pre-COVID Mardi Gras.
The city did hit 97% hotel occupancy over Super Bowl weekend. But hosting one of the world’s largest sporting events did not result in a net gain in employment in Louisiana’s tourism sector employment, which has stayed flat so far this year.
The U.S. is currently experiencing a slump in international tourism due to President Donald Trump’s globally controversial economic and immigration policies. So far, that has not led to a decrease in hospitality employment. In fact, Arizona and Texas have both seen minor tourism-related job increases so far this year. California has seen a equally minor decrease.
The long-term effects of Trump administration policies – not to mention global economic conditions and ever-evolving trends in both business gatherings and leisure travel – on the sector remain to be seen.