Nearly 20 percent of hospitality jobs in Summit County were eliminated by the pandemic

The base of Park City Mountain. Photo: TownLift

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — The Department of Workforce Services recently released local economic data for the first quarter of 2021.

The numbers help illustrate the changes the pandemic forced upon Summit County in what is typically peak tourism season.

From March 2020 to March 2021, nearly 20 percent of leisure/hospitality jobs were eliminated in Summit County.

“Summit County in particular was affected heavily by the pandemic,” the Department report said.

“The ‘stay home, stay safe’ orders and increase in cases hit at what is normally the peak of tourism and the ski season in the area in the Spring of 2020, causing mass unemployment and a drop in tourism spending, which the area depends on. While the unemployment rate and job losses moderated slightly as the year went on, many of these effects continued as tourism in the area remained below normal levels.”

The job losses peaked in April 2020 in the county, with a 28% employment reduction from the year prior.

In total between March 2020 and March 2021, Summit County lost a total of 2,656 jobs (8.5%). Most of the losses were confined to the hospitality sector, but other industries were hurt as well.

The trends, when compared to state and national averages, show that Summit County was more severely impacted by the emergence of COVID-19. During the same period when the county lost 8.5 percent of total nonfarm jobs — the entire state of Utah actually gained 1.1 percent, and the U.S. as a whole only lost 4.4 percent.