Coronavirus: Hotel Workers Lose Jobs By Thousands In Illinois

ILLINOIS — The new coronavirus has led to nearly half of all workers connected to the hotel business being laid off already or facing layoff in the next few weeks, according to an Oxford Economics report.

In Illinois, 26,124 employees who work directly for hotels have lost their jobs or soon will be let go, out of a total of 59,372, the report states.

Counting related businesses, the numbers are 119,408 out of 292,588 workers.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association said the industry normally supports more than 8 million jobs and blamed the losses on plummeting occupancy rates.

“Hotel owners are already reporting facing massive, unavoidable layoffs and furloughs,” the release said.

According to the hotel association:

• Hotels support more than 1 in 25 American jobs – 8.3 million in total.
• The hotel industry pays more than $97 billion in wages and salary income, a 16 percent increase since 2015.
• Hotels contribute nearly $660 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product.
• Guests spend nearly $550 billion at hotels and local businesses.
• Every 100 occupied rooms per night support nearly 250 local jobs, leading to $18.4 million in guest spending.
• $186 billion goes back to the communities through local, state and federal taxes.
• 1.3 billion guests stay in American hotels every year.