Now that more engaged couples are vaccinated and eager to tie the knot, weddings and the jobs associated with them are making a comeback.
After a steep drop in 2020 and modest growth this year, weddings in the U.S. are poised to bounce back with a vengeance in 2022, according to an analysis by the Wedding Report. The report found that there were 1.27 million weddings in the country in 2020, compared with 2.13 million in 2019. The number is forecast to tick up to 1.93 million this year, and climb to a record 2.47 million next year.
But experts say don’t expect the boom to last. Countless weddings were postponed in 2020 as the pandemic set in, so many of the upcoming ceremonies likely would have taken place last year. The same report forecasts the number to dip back down to normal levels in 2023 (2.24 million) and 2024 (2.17 million).
Planning all those ceremonies takes an entire industry, and according to our data, job listings for wedding planning company The Knot have reached record highs. The current number of listings as of August 17 is 153, a 565% increase from this time last year, when the company just had 23 listings.
Listings began picking up last autumn, and they’ve been increasing ever since. The Knot also monitors consumer confidence in weddings, and according to a recent study, 90% of guests surveyed said they were willing to spend more to attend upcoming weddings — that includes attire, travel, and gifts for the happy couple.
Despite the wedding frenzy, marriage rates have been steadily falling for decades. According to the CDC, rates hit their lowest point in 2019, with 6.1 per 1,000 people married, down from 8.2 in 2000. A Pew report also found that fertility rates are falling, and also hit their lowest point in 2019 before dropping dramatically during the pandemic. If there’s a correlation between wedding and fertility data, there could be a new baby boom in the coming years to compensate for the pandemic baby bust.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online, jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings, and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
