A year of COVID-19: the impact on tourism jobs

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Released
18/06/2021
Source
Tourism Satellite Accounts: quarterly tourism labour statistics, Australia, experimental estimates, March 2021

In the year to March quarter 2021, tourism filled jobs fell by 5.1 per cent to 662,700, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Jonathon Khoo, ABS head of Tourism Statistics, said: "Since the low in June 2020, 56,200 tourism jobs have been added; however the rate of recovery in the number of full-time and part-time tourism jobs varies throughout different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Full-time tourism jobs have been more impacted on a year on year basis (down 6.5 per cent), however the number of full-time jobs (337,600) exceeds the number of part-time jobs (325,100) at the end of this period.

Mr Khoo added: “In the initial phase of the COVID-19 restrictions, it was part-time tourism jobs that bore the brunt of the losses. These rebounded strongly across the second half of 2020 as domestic travel resumed, but fell away in early 2021 as full-time jobs continued to return.”

Tourism jobs held by females (346,200) have been more impacted in the year ending March 2021, with 33,200 (-8.8 per cent) jobs lost since March 2020. This compares to tourism jobs held by males (316,500) who lost 2,300 (-0.7 per cent) jobs over the same period.

Further information is available in Tourism Satellite Account: quarterly tourism labour statistics, Australia, experimental estimates (cat. no. 5249.0.55.005).

Media notes

  • Ideally, the tourism jobs estimates would be seasonally adjusted. The challenge with this publication is the COVID-19 disruption to the normal patterns. Annual comparisons are a useful way of accounting for seasonality. Please consider this when interpreting this data.

  • These statistics are based on data released in the Labour Account, Australia, March 2021 (cat. no. 6150.0.55.003). 

  • The additional ABS products being published to understand the economic impact of the coronavirus can be found on the ABS COVID-19 page.

  • When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.

  • For media requests and interviews, contact the ABS Media Team via media@abs.gov.au (8.30am-5pm Mon-Fri).
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