Data released by the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics anticipates that the coronavirus could mean the loss of 5.9 million travel-related jobs by the end of April.
The figure is up from a similar report by U.S. Travel last week that projected a loss of 4.6 million travel-related jobs by the end of April because of the coronavirus. That report projected the travel industry economy would lose $2020 billion in direct travel spending as well.
“The coronavirus crisis is hitting the travel economy hard, and it’s also hitting fast,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow. “These new figures underscore the extreme urgency of financial relief for travel businesses—83 percent of which are small businesses—so they can keep paying their employees. Not only are workers suffering right now, but if employers are forced to close their doors, it is unknown when or if those jobs will ever come back.”
The projections come at a time when the travel industry, and others, are begging the federal government for help as part of Congress’ nearly $2 trillion economic stimulus package.
U.S. Travel asked Congress to include significant small business loans, a workforce stabilization fund, and tax relief to mitigate economic losses.
According to U. S. Travel, the travel industry supports nearly 16 million jobs. The projected job loss in just the travel-related arena would result in the unemployment rate more than doubling to 7.1 percent by the end of April. And the loss of $910 billion travel-related economic output in 2020 would be seven times worse than losses due to 9/11, sending the American economy into an extended recession.
“The health crisis deserves the government’s full attention, but the economic crisis will be worse and longer without aggressive action to confront it right now,” Dow said. “Businesses can’t keep their lights on if they don’t have any customers, and they don’t have any customers because of the actions that are necessary to stem the spread of coronavirus. The resulting closures will take the greatest toll on the frontline employees who can least afford to lose their jobs—wait staff, housekeepers, concession workers, etc.”
On Wednesday, the White House and Democratic lawmakers agreed on a $2 trillion stimulus package that includes funding for small business loans and bailouts for the airline industry. The Senate was expected to vote on the package Wednesday. The stimulus package still needs to get approval from the House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump before being enacted.