The report on the demographic situation of the German hotel and catering sector gives a compact resumé on the basic sociodemographic developments in this branch of profession in the decade between 2000 and 2010. Based on data that had been collected by the Federal Statistical Office, we compared data on the age pattern, sex, migration background, full and parttime work, position, job changes, reasons for quitting of employees in the hotel and catering sector and in the German economy as a whole. Thus it has been possible to comparatively portray the specific characteristics of the hotel and catering sector and to depict its temporal development.