(TAN): The United States Travel Association has said an estimated 6 million Americans working in the travel industry will lose their jobs by the end of April owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
The nonprofit organisation said revised projections show a loss of 5.9 million jobs by the end of next month because of a decline in travel triggered by the virus outbreak. The data was released by the United States Travel Association and Tourism Economics.
The updated estimate follows a forecast last week from the same group that said 4.6 million travel-related jobs would be lost in the United States before May.
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U.S. Travel Association President and Chief Executive Officer Roger Dow said financial aid is crucial in order to help travel businesses pay their staff.
“The coronavirus crisis is hitting the travel economy hard, and it’s also hitting fast. These new figures underscore the extreme urgency of financial relief for travel businesses—83% 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,” Dow said.
Tourism is responsible for 15.8 million jobs in the country, employing one out of every 10 Americans. The organisation predicted unemployment rate could go up while causing “economic damage from the public health crisis” – job losses alone will more than double the unemployment rate to 7.1% by the end of April from 3.5%.
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The analysis also revealed that the American economy will suffer a blow of USD 910 billion prompted by the outbreak, which is seven times the impact the September 11 terror attacks had on the economy. It also said the slump in the tourism sector alone will send the country’s economy into a prolonged recession.
Dow said the impact of the pandemic can only be minimised with support from the government.
“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. 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. Robust intervention by the federal government is the only avenue to make sure those outcomes are minimized,” he said.
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The U.S. Travel Association requested the government for certain measures in the “Phase III” package, including a Workforce Stabilisation Fund for medium and larger travel businesses, tax relief to alleviate economic losses, and access to “more significant small business loans”, guarantee immediate access to sustain employees and cover basic costs during the shutdown.
Several airlines across the world including United Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines have severely cut capacity, reports said. Air Canada is reportedly sacking over 5,000 flight attendants amid slowing demand.
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