Recent reporting from data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the leisure and hospitality industry added 40,000 jobs in December – bringing total 2019 job creation to 388,000. The 2019 increase is similar to the increase in 2018, where 359,000 sector jobs were added. Additionally, the industry unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 5% and hourly wages rose by 3.07% year-over-year. Across all industries and categories, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was reported at 1.2 million, unchanged in December and accounting for 20.5% of the unemployed. The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 63.2% in December 2019.