The Eagle Talks to Dennis Jansen on Leisure and Hospitality Employment

Summary: In an interview with The Eagle newspaper that was published on Friday, April 29, 2022, Dennis Jansen explained positive revisions to local employment data from April’s issue of Economic Indicators.

The Bureau of Labor Statistic’s latest employment revision shows the Leisure and Hospitality industry in the College Station-Bryan MSA at 97.7% of its pre-pandemic level, an increase of 20%. “The numbers would indicate that locally the employment levels are basically, nearly the same as they were right before the pandemic started,” said Jansen.

Currently, many businesses are also having to navigate a tight labor market and the subsequent increase in wages in order to hire employees. “That’s a response to businesses reopening or expanding their operations as we’ve recovered from the pandemic and they’re having a hard time finding workers, so they have to end up paying more. That’s kind of supply and demand and you see that in action here,” Jansen said.

Hiring, supply chain problems and capacity issues from local restauranteurs are also included in the article, which can be found at The Eagle.