Tourism jobs recover to near pre COVID-19 levels

Tourism jobs increased 12.1 per cent in December quarter 2022, bringing the total number of jobs in the industry back to almost pre COVID-19 pandemic levels, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Jonathon Khoo, ABS head of tourism statistics, said: “The recovery in tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic is catching up with the total economy.

“The number of tourism jobs fell by half (-393,600 jobs) in the June 2020 quarter, reflecting the travel and border restrictions brought in to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Mr Khoo said.

“By the end of December 2022, we saw 312,500 of these jobs had returned to the sector – which is equivalent to saying that nine out of 10 tourism jobs that existed in December 2019 are now filled.

“Recovery in tourism jobs has not been equal across industries. Jobs associated with holiday makers have shown the greatest recovery, with cafés, restaurants and takeaway food services just 0.5 per cent off the pre-pandemic level.

“However, the education and training sector has seen a much slower recovery of jobs lost during the pandemic. The low numbers of short-term international students currently in Australia means that four in 10 education-related tourism jobs from before the pandemic are currently filled. Domestic students continue to dominate the tertiary and vocational education sectors,” Mr Khoo said.

The recovery for men has been higher than for women. Jobs held by men have recovered to 92.7 per cent of the level it was in 2019, compared with jobs held by women at 86.7 per cent. The return of full-time jobs is better than part-time jobs (90.4 per cent and 88.1 per cent respectively).