BRAC produces an economic indicator dashboard as part of our business recovery priorities. The dashboard examines and assesses the impact of COVID-19 on the regional economy, taking into account a number of data points to illustrate the economy’s current state, and to keep businesses informed as it begins to steady and rebound. Past dashboards are archived on brac.org/recovery.
GET DASHBOARD Key takeaways from this week’s dashboard include:
- While consumer spending was near or at pre-pandemic levels at the start of July, small business revenue is down in the three largest parishes – this is due to the fact that many small businesses did not reopen;
- Although fuel sales are down over-the-year, this is largely due to the corresponding week in 2019 being that of Hurricane Barry, which drove up fuel sales;
- As cases and hospitalizations in the region rose, mobility dropped, specifically travel to the workplace, which saw significant decline in the region’s five largest parishes;
- Hotel occupancy was a bright spot, as it was virtually identical to a similar week in 2019. Hotel revenues are on the rise as well;
- Weekly combined unemployment claims have gone from stagnant to rising over the last few weeks, due mostly to an increase in new initial claims.