The Houston metro had 3.49 million jobs as of the end of April, an increase of less than half a percent compared with a year earlier. The leisure and hospitality sector added just a few thousand jobs in the last year for a total of 370,600, again a less than half-percent increase year over year.

Leisure and hospitality represents 10.7% of the total regional workforce. Accommodations and food services make up the lion’s share of the sector at about 88% of industry jobs, with arts, entertainment and recreation comprising the remaining 12% of the positions.

Roughly 5% 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 4.2%.

Houston has one of the largest hospitality job markets in the country behind Los Angeles, New York City, and Dallas-Fort Worth. The State of Texas had more than 1.54 million jobs in the sector as of April, about the same as a year earlier.

Written by staff