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States With the Biggest Drop in Consumer Spending During COVID-19

consumer spending

States With the Biggest Drop in Consumer Spending During COVID-19

The latest surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant once again disrupted an economic recovery that has been uneven to date. While most jurisdictions did not resort to the same sorts of public health restrictions instituted in early 2020, many businesses struggled to operate at full capacity with employees sick due to COVID and many consumers behaving more cautiously. Industries that have been hard-hit throughout the pandemic, like restaurants and airlines, experienced new disruptions heading into 2022.

Economic challenges associated with Omicron and future variants could once again depress consumer spending, piling on top of an unusual decrease in consumer expenditures during the pandemic’s first year. For most of the last 60 years, consumer spending has increased year over year, even during economic downturns. But from 2019 to 2020, overall consumer spending fell by 2.6%, the largest year-over-year decline since the Great Recession.

COVID’s effects on consumer spending have not been consistent across all categories, which means that some industries are struggling more than others. Public health restrictions affecting certain types of businesses and consumers’ shifting preferences from spending more time at home have driven trends in expenditures. In some cases, these factors have created divergent spending trends between similar categories. For example, spending on food services and accommodations dropped by 20.5% from 2019 to 2020, while spending on groceries was up 11.2% over the same period. Similarly, recreation services—which includes businesses like sports venues and theaters—saw the largest overall decline at 28.6%, but recreational goods and vehicles saw the largest overall increase at 13.1%.

In addition to differences by spending category, declines in consumer spending also varied by geography. The region with the greatest drop in spending was the Mideast (including Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland), with a 4.07% decrease from 2019 to 2020, followed by the Far West at 4.03%. In contrast, the Rocky Mountain region had the lowest decrease, with consumers spending only 1.25% less in 2020 than in 2019.

Among states, most of the locations where consumer spending dropped the most were found in the Mideast, Far West, and New England regions. For most of these states, the declines are explained in large part by decreases in spending on recreation services, transportation services, or both. Recreation services were slow to return to full capacity in many locations because they were considered less essential and frequently likely to contribute to the spread of the coronavirus. Areas with high populations of commuters usually relying on vehicles or public transportation, like densely populated areas in the Northeast, saw declines in transportation spending with the greater transition to remote work.

The data used in this analysis is from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’s Personal Consumption Expenditures. To determine the states with the biggest drop in spending during COVID-19, researchers at Filterbuy calculated the percentage change in per capita consumer spending from 2019 to 2020. In the event of a tie, the state with the lower total change in per capita consumer spending from 2019 to 2020 was ranked higher.

Here are the states with the biggest drop in spending during COVID.

State Rank Percentage change in consumer spending (2019-2020) Total change in consumer spending (2019-2020) Per capita consumer spending (2020) Per capita consumer spending (2019) Category with the largest decrease in spending
Alaska    1    -5.4% -$2,760 $48,739 $51,499 Recreation services
Massachusetts    2    -5.0% -$2,762 $52,001 $54,763 Transportation services
Hawaii    3    -4.7% -$2,233 $45,080 $47,313 Transportation services
New York    4    -4.6% -$2,416 $49,735 $52,151 Transportation services
Minnesota    5    -4.6% -$2,129 $44,403 $46,532 Recreation services
Maryland    6    -4.4% -$2,051 $44,331 $46,382 Recreation services
California    7    -4.3% -$2,086 $46,636 $48,722 Recreation services
Pennsylvania    8    -3.9% -$1,828 $44,650 $46,478 Recreation services
Vermont    9    -3.8% -$1,888 $47,397 $49,285 Recreation services
Nevada    10    -3.8% -$1,532 $39,211 $40,743 Gasoline and other energy goods
North Dakota    11    -3.7% -$1,668 $43,945 $45,613 Gasoline and other energy goods
Rhode Island    12    -3.7% -$1,660 $42,944 $44,604 Gasoline and other energy goods
Washington    13    -3.5% -$1,647 $46,041 $47,688 Transportation services
Delaware    14    -3.2% -$1,526 $45,434 $46,960 Transportation services
Florida    15    -3.1% -$1,376 $43,615 $44,991 Transportation services
United States    -3.0% -$1,311 $42,635 $43,946 Recreation services

 

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Filterbuy’s website: https://filterbuy.com/resources/consumer-spending-covid/

tourism

U.S. Cities Most Reliant on Tourism

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.4 percent during the month of August. This represents a sizable decrease from the record-high rate of 14.7 percent notched in April during the middle of the economic shutdown, but still millions of Americans remain unemployed.

The hospitality industry has been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. As of last year, over 14 million people (or 9.4 percent of all workers) were employed in accommodation and food services, which includes hotels, casinos, restaurants, and bars. However, the industry accounted for almost one-third of all job losses due to the pandemic. BLS data shows that the industry has gained back over 3.7 million jobs since April, but unemployment remains high, at 20.8 percent.

The share of workers in restaurants and hospitality varies considerably on a geographic basis. Popular destinations among tourists like Nevada and Hawaii have the largest shares of workers in the sector. Over 22 percent of non-farm workers in Nevada are employed in the accommodation and food services industry, while Hawaii has over 17 percent. Nebraska and Connecticut have the lowest shares of workers in accommodation and food services, both at 7.6 percent.

To find the metropolitan areas that are most reliant on tourism, researchers at seoClarity analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The researchers ranked metro areas according to share of non-farm employment in the accommodation and food services industry. Researchers also calculated the total number of accommodation and food services workers, total (non-farm) workers across all industries, the overall unemployment rate in April, and the cost of living.

To improve relevance, only metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 people were included in the analysis. Additionally, metro areas were grouped into cohorts based on population size. In the report, small metros have between 100,000–349,999 residents; midsize metros have between 350,000–999,999 residents; large metros have at least 1,000,000 residents.

Here are the large metropolitan areas that are most reliant on tourism.

Metro Rank Share of employment in Accommodation and Food Services Total Accommodation and Food Services workers Total workers across all industries Overall unemployment rate (April 2020) Cost of living*
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV 1 26.2% 270,600 1,034,100 34.0% 3.2% below average

 

Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 2 14.0% 185,700 1,327,100 16.8% 1.3% below average

 

New Orleans-Metairie, LA 3 13.5% 78,900 583,400 19.0% 5.9% below average

 

San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA 4 11.4% 171,700 1,503,900 15.0% 16.4% above average

 

San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 5 11.2% 121,300 1,078,700 13.3% 6.1% below average

 

Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX 6 10.8% 120,500 1,116,000 12.2% 0.2% above average

 

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL 7 10.4% 283,700 2,718,100 13.4% 9.9% above average

 

Jacksonville, FL 8 10.2% 74,200 724,400 11.2% 4.5% below average

 

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 9 10.1% 155,200 1,541,800 14.7% 7.0% above average

 

Tucson, AZ 10 10.1% 39,500 389,600 12.8% 6.1% below average

 

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 11 10.0% 621,400 6,239,500 18.8% 17.1% above average

 

Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 12 10.0% 79,700 795,300 12.1% 3.0% below average

 

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 13 9.9% 136,600 1,384,700 13.2% 1.0% below average

 

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX 14 9.4% 295,700 3,156,200 14.3% 1.8% above average

 

Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO 15 9.4% 144,800 1,536,000 12.3% 4.9% above average

 

United States 9.4% 14,142,600 150,939,000 14.4% N/A

 

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on seoClarity’s website: https://www.seoclarity.net/blog/us-cities-most-reliant-on-tourism

This article originally appeared on seoClarity. Republished with permission.