# Tourism share of employment

Employment in tourism as a percentage of total employment, as each country reports it to the OECD: for most countries, people employed or jobs in the tourism industries (accommodation, food and beverage serving, passenger transport, travel agencies and others); for some, the employment that serves visitors directly.

## Key facts

- Tourism share of employment in the United States was 4% in 2023, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
- Malta had the highest tourism share of employment of 42 countries in 2022, at 16.9%, and South Korea the lowest, at 1.5%. Source: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
- Published for 48 places, with figures from 2008 to 2025.
- Figures last updated on 2026-10-12.

- Indicator id: `tourism_employment_share`
- Unit: %
- Note: The OECD labels the measure direct, but most countries count everyone working in the tourism industries, including work that serves residents, so the share is usually well above tourism_direct_gdp_share (Spain 2023: 13.2% against 6.0%). Definitions differ between countries and break within some (flagged: Colombia 2015, Denmark 2019, Japan 2014), so compare countries with care.
- Web page: https://invokely.ai/en/tourism-share-of-employment
- API: https://invokely.ai/api/v1/indicators/tourism_employment_share

## Latest figures

| Place | Period | % | Source |
|---|---|---:|---|
| United States | 2023 | 4 | OECD. OECD Key tourism economic indicators: tourism employment, percentage of total employment (DSD_TOURISM_KEY@DF_KEY_IND_PC, EMP_SH). https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_TOURISM_KEY%40DF_KEY_IND_PC&df[ag]=OECD.CFE.TOU. Accessed 2026-10-12. Data reuse terms and downstream attribution: https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html |

## Rankings

- [Countries](https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/countries.md) (48 places)
- [EU countries](https://invokely.ai/rankings/tourism-share-of-employment/eu-countries.md) (24 places)