In popular tourist destinations such as Greece, Cyprus and Spain, the hotel and restaurant industry is of great importance for the labour market. In 2023, around 8% of the workforce in Spain, Cyprus and Malta worked in catering and accommodation establishments, in Greece even 9%. In Germany, 3% of all employees aged 15 and over worked in hotels and restaurants.
Looking at the absolute figures, hotels and restaurants in Spain provide the most jobs: Around 1.8 million people are employed in this sector. Italy and Germany (each 1.5 million employees) also employ more than one million people in the hospitality sector. In 2023, this economic sector employed a total of 9.6 million people in the 27 EU Member States.
This data comes from the European Labour Force Survey (LFS) and relates to the accomodation and food services sector (NACE Rev.2 classification I).