Using High-Frequency Data for Real-Time Tracking of the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on the District of Columbia
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on US national, state, and local economies. One of the difficulties in assessing the extent of the economic impact is the lack of timely data. While measures to control the pandemic rapidly destroyed jobs in the retail and hospitality and leisure sectors, official US Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on jobs at the national level were not available until a week after the end of the month when the jobs were lost. And at the state and local level, the jobs numbers are available two are more weeks after the end of the month.
