Hotel sector job cuts are massive — and more to come

Some early data on the decimation the coronavirus has wrought on the hospitality industry, specifically hotels, is in. And, not surprisingly, given its population and large reliance on tourism, Florida is at the front of the line in a massive drop in business.

For starters, only California, with 125,454 hotel job losses, surpasses Florida’s 88,631 lost hotel jobs, according to a state-by-state breakdown from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, in conjunction with Oxford Economics. Only Nevada, with 85,130 losses and Texas, with 64,072, surpass 50,000 in total layoffs and furloughs. “The hotel industry is facing an abrupt and unprecedented drop in hotel demand that is gaining pace and getting progressively deeper and more severe week by week,” states the report, released March 20.