The tourism sector has received considerable emphasis in recent years from the Irish government as a source of new employment creation. Thus, the Operational Programme for the new sector under the EC Community Support Framework for Ireland for the period 1989-93 provided for the creadtion of 25,000 additional jobs in tourism, an increase of one third. The National Development Plan for the period 1994-99 envisages a further growth of 29,000 in tourism employment in that period. This emphasis on employment creation in tourism in Ireland reflects the international situation, in that governments everywhere are now devoting considerable funds to tourism development. Tourism is being targetted because of its strong long-term growth performance, increasing levels of disposable income among large sections of the populations of advanced economies, the relative labour-intensity of tourism activities and the ease of entry for new small businesses into many aspects of the tourism industry. This chapter examines trends in employment levels in the Irish tourism industry and the nature of this employment. It begins by looking at the problems associated with actually measuring tourism employment, followed by a presentation of recent estimates of employment trends in the industry. It then looks in particular at the Hotel sector, the largest sector in the tourism industry. This section focuses on the types of employment which characterise the sector, and highlights the importance of the sector as an employer of women in particular. This is followed by a brief look at the Leisure sector, and some concluding comments.