Grand Junction Leisure & Hospitality Industry Insights

May 1, 2024

Leisure & Hospitality wages have increased 29.6% from Q3 2019 to Q3 2023 per the Bureau of Labor & Statistics. Recent data from the March 2024 ADP National Employment Report further validates the strong performance of the sector with two additional critical insights. 

Firstly, the Leisure & Hospitality sector reported the highest median increase in annual pay compared to all industry sectors, with a year-over-year increase of 5.80% in March 2024. 

Secondly, the Leisure & Hospitality sector topped the charts in March 2024 for U.S. private employment growth, adding 63,000 jobs—nearly double the number added by the next closest sector, construction. This robust growth in jobs & wages demonstrates the sector's resilience and indicates that its upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing down.

Aside from tourism development, growth of the Leisure & Hospitality sector directly benefits residents. This sector not only strengthens local employment but also significantly contributes to the economic health of the Grand Junction area and provides retail, restaurant and activities for locals to enjoy. To capitalize on these benefits, Visit Grand Junction will continue to apply data-driven strategies designed to ensure that Grand Junction remains a premier destination, amplifying economic growth and creating high-quality job opportunities. 

Leisure & Hospitality includes: Retail, Restaurant, Activities, and Lodging

ADP calculates their data using payroll from 20% of U.S. private employers, supplemented with the Current Employment Statistics survey and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ADP’s wage measurement captures the salaries of the same cohort of almost 10 million individual employees over a 12-month period. ADP is the largest payroll company, with over one million customers.

YoY: Year over year. This refers to the comparison of statistics from one year to the same period in the previous year.

MoM: Month over month. This refers to the comparison of statistics from one month to the immediately preceding month.

Job-Stayers: If a job (the same employee-employer pairing) appears in both the current month and the same month from last year, the employee will be considered a job-stayer.