Leisure & Hospitality Employment: 16.9M in Feb 2026
Leisure & Hospitality Employment dipped to 16.9M in Feb 2026. Up 0.8% year-over-year.
Leisure & Hospitality Employment -- Historical Chart
Leisure & Hospitality Employment. Gray shaded areas indicate U.S. recessions.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), Series USLAH. Updated 2026-03-09.
What the Feb 2026 Data Shows
At 16.9M, leisure & hospitality employment in Feb 2026 is above the 10-year average of 15.8M by 1.1M. The reading has been mixed recently, fluctuating without a clear directional trend over the past 6 months.
Leisure and hospitality (FRED series USLAH) is the sector most heavily represented among small businesses that use alternative financing. Restaurants, bars, hotels, and entertainment venues are cash-flow-dependent businesses that borrow against future receivables, making them the primary market for merchant cash advances and revenue-based financing.
The sector was devastated by COVID, losing over 8 million jobs in April 2020 alone -- the largest single-sector job loss in BLS history. Recovery was gradual and uneven, with fine dining and urban hotels recovering slower than fast-casual chains and suburban accommodation.
Employment data is monthly from the BLS CES survey, seasonally adjusted.
What This Metric Measures
This page tracks total employment in the leisure and hospitality supersector, covering restaurants, bars, hotels, amusement parks, recreation, performing arts, museums, and spectator sports. The data comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database, series USLAH, updated monthly.
Historical Context
The all-time peak was 17.0M in Dec 2025. The all-time trough was 1.9M in Jan 1939. During COVID-19, the reading hit 16.9M (Feb 2020). Year-over-year, the metric has moved +0.8%.
Why It Matters
If you work in business debt relief or MCA restructuring, this is arguably the most important employment series to track. When leisure and hospitality employment contracts, it means restaurants and hotels are cutting staff because revenue is falling. Those are the same businesses that have MCA obligations based on projected revenue that is no longer materializing. The sector's employment trend is a leading indicator of MCA portfolio stress.
What This Means for Business Owners
Understanding where this metric stands relative to historical norms helps business owners make better borrowing decisions. When leisure & hospitality employment is above its 10-year average, it signals changing conditions in the credit markets that affect both cost and availability of financing.
Leisure & Hospitality Employment -- Frequently Asked Questions
Leisure and hospitality employment is 16.9M as of Feb 2026. Pre-pandemic peak was roughly 16.9 million in February 2020. The sector dropped to 8.6 million in April 2020 and has been gradually recovering since.
The sector has largely recovered in headcount but faces persistent structural challenges: labor shortages in kitchen and housekeeping roles, higher wages compressing margins, and changed consumer patterns (less business travel, more remote work reducing downtown lunch traffic).
Restaurants and hotels are the largest users of merchant cash advances, daily payment business loans, and revenue-based financing. When sector employment drops, it signals revenue stress at these businesses, which directly drives up MCA and business loan delinquencies.
Leisure and hospitality has the lowest average hourly earnings of any major sector, though wages have risen significantly post-2020. The sector average is roughly $19-21 per hour, well below the all-private-sector average of $34+. Tips supplement reported wages for many workers.
Highly seasonal. Summer months and the holiday season see significant hiring surges. The BLS seasonally adjusts the data to remove these predictable patterns, so the FRED series reflects underlying trend changes rather than seasonal swings.
FRED series USLAH from the BLS Current Employment Statistics survey. Monthly, seasonally adjusted. Covers all establishments in NAICS supersector 70 (Leisure and Hospitality).