Skip to content
Singulariki

Hospitality, Events, & Tourism

National Career Cluster · the map of work

Hospitality, Events, & Tourism is one of the 14 national career clusters — the U.S. Department of Education's map that divides the whole world of work into broad families, each crosswalked to occupations, education programs, and industries. This cluster spans 51 occupations across 4 sub-clusters, employing about 21,584,920 workers, with a median wage of $36,830.

What's in this cluster

A career cluster is a navigational grouping, not a measured score. The counts below come from the framework's official crosswalk; employment and pay are aggregated from BLS OEWS (national, cross-industry, May 2024) across the occupations in the cluster.

51 occupations
4 sub-clusters
21,584,920 workers (BLS)
$36,830 median pay
60 education programs

Across occupations with wage data, the middle range (25th–75th percentile of occupation medians) runs $34,400 – $47,490. This describes the cluster, not any one job or person.

Sub-clusters

The framework splits each cluster into sub-clusters — tighter families of related work. The count is the number of occupations the crosswalk places in each.

Sub-cluster Occupations
Travel & Leisure 23
Culinary & Food Services 18
Accommodations 7
Conferences & Events 3

Largest occupations in this cluster

Exposure quadrant: AI task-overlap percentile vs Median pay AI task-overlap (horizontal) versus median pay (vertical), each as a percentile across all scored occupations, for 38 occupations in Hospitality, Events, & Tourism. Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation. Lower overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · lower pay Lower overlap · lower pay Dishwashers Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers Tree Trimmers and Pruners Food Preparation Workers Baggage Porters and Bellhops First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers First-Line Supervisors of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers Chefs and Head Cooks Food Service Managers Waiters and Waitresses First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling Lodging Managers Counter and Rental Clerks Fundraising Managers Travel Agents AI task-overlap percentile → ↑ Median pay
The largest occupations in this cluster with both an AI task-overlap score and a wage, plotted by task-overlap percentile (horizontal) and median-pay percentile (vertical). Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation.

Occupations in this cluster with the most workers nationally (BLS OEWS, May 2024), each linked to its full profile. Employment and pay describe the occupation, not an individual.

Occupation Workers Median pay
Fast Food and Counter Workers 3,780,930 $30,480
Waiters and Waitresses 2,302,690 $33,760
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners 2,199,900 $35,930
Cooks, Restaurant 1,452,130 $36,830
First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers 1,187,460 $42,010
Receptionists and Information Clerks 964,530 $37,230
Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers 943,430 $38,090
Food Preparation Workers 888,770 $34,220
Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners 854,910 $34,660
Bartenders 745,610 $33,530
Cooks, Fast Food 668,230 $30,160
Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers 522,010 $32,670
Dishwashers 471,670 $33,670
Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria 448,260 $36,450
Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop 427,150 $30,380
Counter and Rental Clerks 398,620 $38,540
Amusement and Recreation Attendants 371,590 $30,490
Recreation Workers 309,640 $35,380
Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks 261,430 $34,270
Food Service Managers 244,230 $65,310
Bakers 231,890 $36,650
Chefs and Head Cooks 182,320 $60,990
First-Line Supervisors of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers 174,660 $47,520
Cooks, Short Order 150,420 $35,620
Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners 134,670 $59,440
Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks 127,440 $41,460
First-Line Supervisors of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers 124,130 $56,170
Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers 119,210 $31,150
Fundraisers 105,930 $66,490
First-Line Supervisors of Entertainment and Recreation Workers, Except Gambling Services 92,830 $46,900
Food Preparation and Serving Related Workers, All Other 89,580 $34,830
Gambling Dealers 82,980 $33,280
Travel Agents 59,150 $48,450
Tour and Travel Guides 49,010 $36,660
Tree Trimmers and Pruners 47,870 $50,430
Concierges 44,200 $37,320
Lodging Managers 41,350 $68,130
Fundraising Managers 36,920 $123,480
Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling 36,700 $77,180
Baggage Porters and Bellhops 31,220 $36,020

AI exposure across this cluster

Two published studies estimate how exposed each occupation is to today's AI. The OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" study rates the share of an occupation's tasks a large language model (with tools) could speed up by half or more; averaged across this cluster it is 27% — 32nd percentile of the 14 clusters. The independent Felten/Raj/Seamans AI Occupational Exposure index averages -0.34 here.

Computed across the 47 of 51 occupations in this cluster that carry a published exposure score.

Exposure measures where AI could assist tasks — it is not a prediction that these jobs will be automated. High exposure most often means augmentation (faster work), and many high-exposure occupations are also projected to grow.

Where the work sits

The framework anchors each cluster to one or more NAICS industry sectors — the parts of the economy where this work concentrates.

Education programs that lead here

A sample of the 60 CIP 2020 instructional programs the framework crosswalks to this cluster — the fields of study that prepare people for this work.

  • Applied Horticulture/Horticulture Operations, General
  • Archeology
  • Art History, Criticism and Conservation
  • Baking and Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef
  • Bartending/Bartender
  • Brewery/Brewpub Operations/Management
  • Building/Property Maintenance
  • Business Administration and Management, General
  • Business/Commerce, General
  • Casino Dealing
  • Casino Management
  • Casino Operations and Services, General
  • Communication Management and Strategic Communications
  • Communication, General
  • Cooking and Related Culinary Arts, General
  • Culinary Arts/Chef Training
  • Culinary Science/Culinology
  • Culinary, Entertainment, and Personal Services, Other
  • Environmental/Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism
  • Facilities Planning and Management
  • Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant
  • Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager
  • Foodservice Systems Administration/Management
  • Golf Course Operation and Grounds Management

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 3, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Hospitality, Events, & Tourism." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/clusters/hospitality-events-tourism

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Hospitality, Events, & Tourism. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/clusters/hospitality-events-tourism

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-hospitality-events-tourism,
  title  = {Hospitality, Events, & Tourism},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/clusters/hospitality-events-tourism}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.