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79 percent of private industry workers had access to paid vacation in 2021

August 31, 2022

Labor Day is just around the corner, and the end of summer—the season that many people choose to spend their vacation time—follows soon after. In March 2021, 79 percent of private industry workers had access to paid vacation leave. Forty-three percent of workers in the leisure and hospitality industry had access to paid vacation. Ninety-five percent of private industry workers in the financial activities and manufacturing industries had access to paid vacation.

Percent of private industry workers with access to paid vacation benefits by industry, March 2021
Industry Percent with access to paid vacation

Manufacturing

95%

Financial activities

95

Information

90

Construction

82

Education and health services

82

Trade, transportation, and utilities

81

Professional and business services

81

All workers

79

Other services (except public administration)

73

Leisure and hospitality

43

Some workers with access to vacation have a consolidated leave plan, a single amount of time off for them to use for multiple purposes, such as vacation, illness, or personal business. In March 2021, 45 percent of private industry workers with paid vacation leave had access to a consolidated leave plan, and 35 percent of these workers had access in March 2017.

Percent of private industry workers participating in consolidated leave plans by occupational group, March 2017 to March 2021
Occupational group 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

All workers

35% 39% 41% 44% 45%

Management, professional, and related

45 49 51 54 56

Service

37 43 46 46 44

Sales and office

38 40 43 44 45

Natural resources, construction, and maintenance

20 23 27 34 35

Production, transportation, and material moving

20 21 24 28 30

Fifty-six percent of workers in management, professional and related occupations with paid vacations had access to consolidated leave plans, as did 30 percent of workers in production, transportation, and material moving occupations.

These data are from the National Compensation Survey – Benefits program. To learn more, see “Employee Benefits in the United States — March 2021” and the complete dataset (XLSX). We also have more charts on employee benefits.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, 79 percent of private industry workers had access to paid vacation in 2021 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/79-percent-of-private-industry-workers-had-access-to-paid-vacation-in-2021.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

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