The Houston metro finished 2025 with 3.49 million jobs, an increase of less than half a percent compared with a year earlier. But the leisure and hospitality sector saw bigger gains, ending the year at 367,500 jobs, up 1.5% from 2024.

Leisure and hospitality represents a little more than 10% of the total regional workforce. Accommodations and food services make up the lion’s share of the sector at about 89% of industry jobs, with arts, entertainment and recreation comprising the remaining 11% of the positions.

Roughly 5.3% of all jobs in the local leisure and hospitality sector were open at the end of 2025 compared to total market-wide job openings of 4.6%.