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.
BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp presented this week’s dashboard during The Advocate’s Mid-Year Economic Outlook. Watch the event recording here. Past dashboards are archived on brac.org/recovery.
Key findings from this week’s dashboard include:
- Although there have been consecutive months of job growth, the Capital Region is still down over 10% since the start of the pandemic;
- Retail fuel sales and hotel occupancy have shown strong rebounds compared to their 2019 levels over the last month;
- Total weekly unemployment claims have stagnated at a significantly high level, as a number of businesses remain closed;
- Consumer spending has rebounded from late-March lows, but small business revenue is still down in some large parishes;
- Compared to peer cities, Baton Rouge’s economic recovery is in the middle of the pack for most major metrics.