When neighbours stop knocking: The impact of Canada's 2025 tourism decline on U.S. local labour markets

André Kurmann, Etienne Lalé and Julien Martin

No 94, CLEF Working Paper Series from Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo

Abstract: We provide the first systematic evidence on the labor market consequences of the 25% decline in Canadian visits to the United States in 2025. We combine smartphone foot-traffic data measuring Canadian visitor presence at the ZIP code × industry level with real-time establishment-level employment records. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that establishments in highly exposed markets experienced employment declines of about 6%, implying a loss of 13,900 to 42,100 jobs. These effects are spatially concentrated and should be interpreted as lower bounds, as our analysis focuses on small and medium establishments and abstracts from spillover effects.

Keywords: Tourism; Smartphone Data; Employment; Business Dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-tur
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Related works:
Working Paper: When Neighbors Stop Knocking: The Impact of Canada’s 2025 Tourism Decline on U.S. Local Labor Markets (2026)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:clefwp:338098

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