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The hiring boom the FIFA World Cup was expected to bring to the US looks like it may not end up materializing after all.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the June 11 kickoff of the soccer tournament, the first in the US since 1994, FIFA\u00a0predictedthe events could create the equivalent of 185,000 full-time jobs, primarily in leisure and hospitality. Many Wall Street banks anticipated a smaller yet still-substantial boost.<\/p>\n
Instead, the latest jobs report revealed\u00a0any pickup\u00a0in leisure and hospitality jobs in May\u00a0was completely erased\u00a0in June, leaving employment in the sector down by some 21,000 over the past two months.<\/p>\n
The World Cup, a five-week event expected to bring more than a million fans to 11 US host cities from the New York City area to Los Angeles, was supposed to provide some relief this year for a\u00a0tourism industry under pressure\u00a0from President Donald Trump\u2019s hardening of US borders and\u00a0surging fuel costs\u00a0sparked by the Iran war. But expensive accommodations and match tickets have raised concerns about the eventual boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeopolitical tensions, higher airfares and other barriers could have limited international travel for the World Cup, which is weighing on the amount of leisure and hospitality hiring needed,\u201d said Eli Nir, a US economist at TD Securities.<\/p>\n
While US hotels posted\u00a0record revenue\u00a0per available room during the week of June 21-27 \u2014 the busiest stretch of the World Cup so far \u2014 the improvement was driven more by higher room rates rather than more guests. CoStar data show revenue per available room rose nearly 17% in host markets even as occupancy fell nearly 3 percentage points from a year earlier.<\/p>\n
The US, which is co-hosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico, is where the majority of the matches are taking place. Even before the games began, the US hotel industry had warned of softer demand. An\u00a0April survey\u00a0by the American Hotel & Lodging Association across host cities found bookings were below expectations for 80% of respondents.<\/p>\n
Hotel operators cited FIFA\u2019s release of unused room blocks, visa delays and geopolitical tensions that weighed on international travel, while CoStar said some business and leisure travelers may have avoided host cities because of higher prices and expected crowds.<\/p>\n
Shruti Mishra, an economist at Bank of America, said in a postmortem of the June jobs numbers that the most likely explanation for the disappointing hiring trend in leisure and hospitality is that businesses are favoring overtime for existing employees when needed rather than adding new ones. Bank of America had previously predicted the tournament would provide a 30,000-40,000 boost in payrolls across May and June.<\/p>\n
At the national level, the sector didn\u2019t register a pickup in average weekly hours worked in June, and wage growth remained\u00a0slower than in most others. Some employers in the middle of the action, however \u2014 like Lala\u2019s Argentine Grill in Los Angeles \u2014 are adopting such a strategy.<\/p>\n
Horacio Weschler, the owner of Lala\u2019s, said reservations sell out almost immediately on Argentina game days, and fans from places like Paraguay and Australia, who came to watch their teams play in California, have added the restaurant to their itinerary. Even so, he\u2019s offering additional shifts to his more than 100 employees rather than training new hires.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been hard to find workers,\u201d Weschler said. \u201cSo we decided to give priority to the people who have been working with us for longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read More:\u00a0LA Stadium Workers Avert Strike Before First World Cup Game<\/p>\n
Closer to stadiums, there\u2019s been a more pronounced pickup. Hiring by entertainment and food and beverage companies in neighborhoods where stadiums are located\u00a0outperformed other areas\u00a0in May, according to data from Gusto, a payroll-processing platform.<\/p>\n
Some employers further out, meanwhile, are regretting staffing up. Brett Dowell, the owner of Hammers Dueling Piano Bar in Kansas City, says he brought on five new people in May, but the World Cup has failed to expand tourist activity in the area beyond the traditional entertainment hub known as the Power and Light District \u2014 and he\u2019s stopped scheduling the new hires.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal establishments outside of that have been having a hard time,\u201d Dowell said. \u201cIt was not worth it in our location.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#wanted #World #Cup #hiring #boost #materialize<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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