Leisure jobs recovering faster in highly vaccinated states, report shows

The COVID-19 vaccine appears to be helping revive industries hit by the pandemic. Jobs in the battered leisure and hospitality industry are rebounding faster in states with higher rates of vaccination, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings. Conversely, such jobs have been much slower to return in states with low vaccination rates, the credit rating agency found.

In early August, states where more than 66% of residents were inoculated against the coronavirus saw jobs in restaurants, bars, hotels, tourism and related areas grow  an average of 12% between March 2021 and August 2021, according to the analysis. States with less than a 50% vaccination rate saw leisure and hospitality jobs grow by less than 4% during the same period.  

"For states with very low vaccination rates and high numbers of Delta [variant] cases, that affected job growth because people pulled back. That fear of infection came back in some of those states," said Olu Sonola, senior director of credit research and risk analytics at Fitch