Highlights:
- US Travel Association analysis shows travel industry only added 3,900 jobs in Mar-2018 versus 8,400 in Feb-2018;
- Mar-2018 marks the fourth consecutive monthly increase in travel employment;
- Growth in jobs in 2018 follows job declines in three of the four months between Aug-2017 and Nov-2017;
- Travel Price Inflation, measured by the US Travel's Travel Price Index (TPI), notched up 0.1% in Feb-2018.
The US Travel Association recently conducted an analysis of the country's overall Mar-2018 jobs report and calculated the travel industry only added 3,900 jobs for the month following 8,400 in Feb-2018.
Even though travel employment fell in Mar-2018, the association noted "March marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase in travel employment. "While this month's growth is slower, it follows job declines in three of the four months between August-November 2017."
The association believes the last few months of positive travel industry employment gains signals "positive job growth momentum overall leading into spring".
The travel industry has historically added jobs at a much faster rate than the rest of the economy, but other sectors and the US economy as a whole are beginning to catch up, the association concluded.
Travel Price Inflation, measured by the US Travel's Travel Price Index (TPI), notched up 0.1% in Feb-2018 after a 0.8% decline the price of motor fuel offset mild price increases in food and beverages, recreational services and other travel-related sectors, said the association.
Year-on-year, the TPI "rose by a mild 1.3 percent, which was slower than the increase of 2.2 percent for consumer prices overall for the same period", the association concluded. For the 6M ending Feb-2018, the highest increase in TPI occurred in Sep-2017, with growth of 3%.