The statistics show that year-on-year there have been an estimated 107,000 new jobs created in the ‘accommodation and foodservice activities’ sector - which includes pubs, bars, restaurants, contract caterers and hotels.
The statistics, broken down into regions, show strong growth in the North West and East Midlands in particular, with 11% (+23,000) and 10.6% (+14,000) increases respectively.
The North West beat London to create the most jobs, as the region created 23,000 more jobs compared to the previous year, whilst the capital created 22,000 jobs.
The South East also impressed with 23,000 jobs created, a 7.8% increase, as the East of England saw a 5.6% increase year-on-year, totaling 10,000 new jobs.
The South West however, saw a 4.3% drop in jobs with the region losing 10,000 jobs year-on-year, the only region to lose jobs in the sector.
In the North, 4,000 new jobs were created in the North East (+4.6%) and 6,000 were created in Yorkshire and The Humber (+4.4%). The West Midlands saw a 5.8% increase in job creation with 8,000 new jobs created.
In Wales, a 6.6% increase year-on-year saw 6,000 jobs created, whilst Scotland saw a small increase in job creation with a 0.7% rise, equaling 1,000 new jobs.
Overall in the UK, employment continued to rise and unemployment continued to fall, when comparing the 3 months ending February 2015 to those for September to November 2014.
There are 31.05 million people in work, 248,000 more than for September to November 2014 and 557,000 more than for a year earlier.
Whilst, there were 1.84 million unemployed people, 76,000 fewer than for September to November 2014 and 416,000 fewer than for a year earlier.
The largest increases in the employment rate were for the North West and Wales, and the only region to show an estimated decrease for the latest period was the East of England.
The regions with the highest employment rates continue to be the South East (77%), South West (76.8%) and East of England (76.5%).