Economic Sectors - Leisure And Hospitality, Naics 71–72

The leisure and hospitality supersector includes businesses in the arts, entertainment, recreation, spectator sports, accommodation, and food service industries. This includes performance venues, gambling outlets, golf courses, amusement parks, arcades, hotels and other lodging sites, food service establishments, and privately funded exhibit spaces and historic sites. According to the Bureau of Economic Statistics in Annual Industry Accounts, the arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services sector generated gross output of $719.6 billion in 2003. (See Table 2.1.)

The Current Employment Survey of the BLS indicated 12,125,000 people were employed in the leisure and hospitality sector in 2003, an all-time high for the sector. This represented about 9.4% of all workers in the United States. Nonsupervisory employees in the leisure and hospitality supersector averaged 25.6 hours on the job in 2003 and earned an average $8.76 per hour; both of these figures were significantly below national averages for nonsupervisory employees overall, including an average 33.7 hours on the job and an average hourly rate of $15.35. In addition, workers in this sector suffered higher than average unemployment at 8.7% versus the national average of 6% during 2003.