Dear friends and colleagues,
COVID-19 and the struggle to “flatten the curve” have brought large segments of the economy to an unprecedented halt. News reports have highlighted the immediate financial stress on restaurants and retail, musicians and artists, gig workers, and other typically low-earning workers that rely on face-to-face contact. More than 270,000 Louisiana workers filed unemployment insurance claims over the three weeks between March 15th and April 4th, up from fewer than 6,000 over the preceding three weeks.
Detailed employment data arrives slowly, so a clearer picture of how COVID-19 is affecting our regional economy will come into focus over time. In the meantime, several economists have released back-of-the-envelope estimates of how COVID-19 might affect workers across the United States. We rounded up a few of these analyses and extended them to highlight data relevant to our region. Today, we update our COVID-19 economic analysis with a preliminary look at the workers in the New Orleans metro who might be most at risk of losing their job.
Though speculative, the data suggests that our metro might be slightly more exposed to job loss than most other large metros. Moreover, workers with greater risk likely have fewer financial resources to weather a prolonged employment disruption.
Check out the analysis at:
Bringing you the data you need to make informed decisions,
The Data Center Team
Lamar Gardere, Cody Brumfield, Amy Teller, Rachel Weinstein, Arthur Rymer, Katrina Andry, Erica Amrine, Allison Plyer, Dabne Whitemore, Jenna Losh, Don Asay, and Robby Habans
