The 2026 World Cup has been hailed as a successful event in the US, but according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ establishment survey, the once-every-four-years international football tournament failed to bring jobs.
The accommodation & food services sector cut jobs in both June and July, a combined loss of 56,000 positions—bigger than the 39,000 jobs gained in May.
The arts, entertainment & recreation sector, which should also have benefited from the football tournament, lost a combined 20,000 jobs in the last two months.
But we did see it in Canada
In contrast, Canada’s labor market seems to have benefited from the World Cup, even though Canada was just a minor co-host and games were only played in two Canadian cities (Toronto and Vancouver).
The information, culture & recreation sector, which houses sports and recreational activity services, booked two months of job growth in May and June with a combined increase of 28,600 jobs. Then July saw a minor reversal as the payroll figure shrank by 5,000, given that Canada only hosted three out of its 13 matches in the month.
A similar situation played out in the accommodation & food services sector. In the three months from April the sector added 44,700 jobs; then in July it shed 4,000 positions, consistent with the general World Cup effect narrative.
Last updated: August 8, 2026
Any thoughts as to why?
my thinking is that US has some problems in seasonal adjusting the World Cup effect. But I don’t have high confidence in my answer
I saw some pre-cup reporting that hotels were panicking over not filling reservations in host cities, and thought Trump’s draconian immigration policies could have scared off enough foreign tourists to have an impact.
Yeah, and even during the first two weeks there were reports of ok hotel occupancy. I don’t know, but don’t feel dire after all
Can you say it didn’t help counter the job losses in the sector though? Could it be that without the Cup losses would have been worse?
but the domestic economy in the US has been strong 🤔
I think to prove it one way or another you’d have to compare data from metro areas that had events vs similarly sized ones that did not, no?