No one has completely sorted out all of the jobs that are linked to leisure and converted these to full time equivalents. The simplest way to get a total leisure job estimate is to convert leisure spending to jobs. If this isn't enough, figure that every leisure job generates another job in a supporting industry. This ties nearly half of all jobs to leisure. Indeed, in 1990 there were almost twice as many full time equivalent jobs in lodging establishments alone, as in all businesses, manufacturing, motor vehicles and parts.
Leisure industries are generally far more labor intensive than the auto industry and manufacturing.
Ironically, this means that leisure industries provide more jobs, and manufacturing provides more leisure. Nevertheless, leisure seldom comes to mind when discussing our economy, unless it is the unwanted leisure from unemployment. Our perception of leisure's economic importance depends a great deal on how we look at leisure and the economy. We don't see much of a relationship if we define leisure as time off of work and make work and the production of goods synonymous with economic development. These commonly held perspectives on work, leisure, and the economy were formed during the industrial revolution.