U.S.skiingemployment:

EastandWest

February2008

IS S U E S IN L A B O R S T A T IS T IC S
Summary 08-01 / February 2008 U.S. Department of Labor U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Continued on back

U.S. skiing employment: East and West

Ask any skier where the

best runs are, and he

will usually give you a

highly-detailed answer,

including the amount of

powder involved, what the

double-black and glades

trails are like, and what the

weather conditions are at a

specific time of year. Ask a

BLS economist, however,

and she will also give you a

highly detailed answer, but

one focused more on the

economic side of the

industry, analyzing skiing

facility employment for

each region.

The skiing facilities

industry is limited to

establishments that only

offer downhill or crosscountry skiing and no

overnight accommodations.

Larger resorts with hotels

and condominiums are not

included in this industry, but

rather in the traveler

accommodation industry.

Skiers from the Eastern

States may notice that

Vermont is not listed in the

table of the top five States

for skiing employment, even

though it is the most popular

destination for the eastern

skiing population. A majority

of the places to ski in

Vermont are resorts with

hotels or condominium

rentals, which are classified

in the traveler accommodation industry.

Skiing facilities are often

placed into multiple regions

by skiers (Central, Eastern,

etc.). For this article, the

Mississippi River was used as

the boundary between the

States in the East and those in

the West. January is typically

the most popular time to ski

and is the period covered in

this analysis.

Skiing employment in the

Eastern States has remained

constant for the most part,

with the exception of a spike in

January 2003. (See chart 1.)

The East Coast experienced

multiple snow storms in

December 2002, which excited

the ski industry’s consumer

base. In fact, for the rest of the

winter (January-March 2003),

El Niño provided fresh snow

for the East at the expense of

the West. For ski areas in the

East, early, substantial snows

are often a positive sign, as

many of their skiers live in

metropolitan areas that are

only about 2 or 3 hours from

the slopes. This easy access

allows skiing to be enjoyed

without a lot of advance

planning. The flexibility that

the eastern ski resorts offer is

what has kept their

employment stable (if not

gradually increasing) for the

past 6 years until 2007. In that

winter, smaller eastern slopes,

which make up this industry,

struggled to even make snow

because of unusually warm

temperatures.

The West is a different

story. It has skiing facilities

with bases at double the

altitude of the highest peak in

the East. The snow accumulation is more reliable due to

colder temperatures. These

facilities, however, are not

within convenient access to

major metropolitan centers.

Western ski areas are more

dependent on planned trips.

Weather affects the West

as well as the East. Springlike temperatures in

December 2003 and January

2004 caused January

employment in the West to

decrease by over 1,200 jobs

from the previous winter.

(See table 1.) About 75

percent of this decline came

from California’s aboveaverage temperatures for the

month, causing snowmaking

troubles for the ski areas and

causing Californians to

focus less on colder-climate

activities. Colorado

experienced a warm

December in 2003, so the

drop in employment between

January 2003 and January

Chart 1. Skiing facilities, January employment

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Western region

Eastern region

Employment
Table 1. Employment in skiing facilities in the five States with the most skiing jobs, Eastern and Western regions,

January 2001-07

Region 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Eastern region1 27,973 28,937 33,198 29,406 28,696 29,923 22,585

Pennsylvania 5,583 5,425 6,970 6,703 6,378 6,701 3,890

New Hampshire 3,288 3,073 3,852 3,663 3,464 3,553 3,119

New York 4,583 4,394 4,650 5,054 4,750 4,857 3,059

Maine 2,896 2,750 3,084 2,157 2,377 2,207 2,393

Massachusetts 2,825 2,797 3,023 3,223 3,312 3,122 2,259

Western region2 42,840 42,302 41,537 40,312 40,782 41,216 44,431

Colorado 16,086 14,826 14,426 13,999 14,454 14,621 14,903

California 8,476 8,371 7,645 6,717 6,846 6,312 7,132

Utah 5,642 5,822 5,771 5,809 5,616 5,700 6,266

Washington 3,787 4,098 4,109 4,054 3,414 3,467 3,793

Minnesota 2,522 2,458 2,649 2,762 2,719 3,008 3,030

1Also included in this region are Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey,

North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and

Wisconsin.

2Also included in this region are Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona,

Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Iowa, Alaska, and South Dakota.

2004 was probably a

response to the lower-thanusual skier visits for the

month. El Nino’s effect on

the winter of 2006-07

brought heavy snows to

the West (the East faced

unusually warm temperatures that year), causing

the West’s ski industry to

increase once again.

These data are from the

Quarterly Census of

Employment and Wages in

the Bureau of Labor

Statistics. Data presented

here are for all private-sector

workers covered by State

and Federal unemployment

insurance programs. For

additional information, contact

Anne Lise Almira, an

economist in the Division of

Administrative Statistics and

Labor Turnover, Office of

Employment and

Unemployment Statistics.

E-mail: almira.anne@bls.gov.

Telephone: (202) 691-6449.

Information in this summary J

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Postal Square Building, Rm. 2850

2 Massachusetts Ave., NE

Washington, DC 20212-0001

Official Business

Address Service Requested

will be made available to

sensory-impaired

individuals upon request.

Voice phone: (202) 691-5200.

Federal Relay Service:

1-800-877-8339. This report

is in the public domain and

may be reproduced without

permission.