Daily Economic Data Shows Scale Of COVID-19’s Impact

Since COVID-19 activity shut-downs started to roll across the country back in early March, a number of industries have taken massive hits. Restaurants and travel have been especially hard-hit, but the scale of declines is so large it can be hard to grasp in the abstract. Below we show how activity indicators for key sectors of the economy are down 60% or more on a YoY basis, a shock that’s completely unprecedented in a modern services economy. Granted, these declines are in large part by design, and some of them can bounce back significantly. On the other, these drops indicate revenue not available to meet costs that include payroll, rent, and interest. A 93% decline in travel volumes, 100% decline in seated restaurant meals, 55% decline in overall restaurant revenue, and 67% decline in a subset of small business hours worked are all statistics that capture just how badly broad swathes of economic activity are being hit.