According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), March 2020 quarter witnessed greater impact on tourism jobs than other jobs in the economy due to the impact of bushfires and COVID-19 as tourism activities tend to be labour intensive.
Head of ABS Tourism Statistics, Amanda Clark, said, “The number of filled jobs in the tourism industry fell 3.0% between March 2019 and March 2020, while economy wide filled jobs grew by 1.7%… While many areas of tourism activity were adversely affected, filled jobs in Accommodation services fell the most decreasing 11,600 jobs between March 2019 and March 2020.”
In this period, tourism jobs in Australia decreased by 21,900 (3%) compared to an increase of 243,900 (1.7%) in the overall economy.