New tool shows economic impact of COVID-19 across Washington state
A new tool shows the economic effects of COVID-19 across Washington, the state Department of Commerce said Monday.
“The economic impact of COVID-19 on individuals, families and businesses is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” Commerce Director Lisa Brown said in a press release. “The depth and complexity of the challenge we’re dealing with demands that we use data in new ways to help every family, every community and every industry get back on their feet, stronger and more resilient than before.”
The public “Economic Recovery Dashboard” the agency has created online at commerce.wa.gov/datadashboard shows that leisure and hospitality is the industry that’s been most affected. About 80 percent of construction jobs lost as of June have been recovered. In leisure and hospitality, it’s only about a third.
“Two months after reopening efforts began, Washington’s employment decline is still 30% greater than the lowest point in the Great Recession a decade ago,” the press release said.
The tool shows a drop in employment in April and growth since May is similar to other states.
It also shows initial data about “disproportionate unemployment impacts across race groups, particularly Pacific Islanders and Black workers,” the press release said.
The state used CARES Act funding to make the tool. The data will be updated each month.
The dashboard also has information about food assistance and temporary cash assistance. About 100,000 have signed up for those benefits since February, particularly in central Washington, Spokane and the Tri-Cities.
“The length and depth of the pandemic has resulted in a global slow down that has affected businesses, communities and geographic regions of our state in unique ways,” Brown said in the press release. “A northeastern timber community grappling with loss of a major mill employer. Central Washington agricultural communities facing huge declines in exports. Small service business in urban Puget Sound coping with massive customer losses as office workers stay home and the aerospace industry struggles. We can’t have an equitable recovery without in-depth data. Approaches to recovery must be as diverse as our economy itself.”
“We’re also interested in regional data, being able to know at a county-by-county or regional level how the economic recession is progressing,” Brown said during a virtual press conference Monday.
She said the hope is that the tool will help evaluate how “specific economic recovery strategies or investments,” such as from the Legislature and the governor, are working.
While the dashboard reports that overall the state’s employment is down 5 percent compared to a year ago, the tool has county-specific data that shows employment is down 1 percent in Pierce County, 3 percent in Whatcom, 2 percent in Benton, 5 percent in Franklin and 5 percent in Walla Walla. Thurston County employment is the same as a year ago, the best status in the state; only Cowlitz County also reports no loss year over year.
However, participants in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program increased by 36 percent in Pierce County, 26 percent in Thurston, 20 percent in Whatcom, 46 percent in Benton, 51 percent in Franklin, and 61 percent in Walla Walla, according to the dashboard.
The dashboard also features business income data and some information about international trade and investment activity in the state.
The data pulls from the state Department of Revenue, Employment Security Department, and Department of Social and Health Services, among other sources.
