The U.S. Census Bureau and the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership in collaboration with the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) and the Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute, welcomes Lee Tucker as he presents, “Initial Impact of COVID-19 on Travel, Tourism, Outdoor Recreation Varied Widely Across States.”

In this presentation, Tucker shows how the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) was used to examine how workers employed in travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation across the country were affected by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data find that states with the largest COVID-19 outbreaks (northeastern and mid-Atlantic states) and those with the largest share of tourism jobs (Nevada and Hawaii) were disproportionately impacted at the start of the pandemic. Even workers who retained their jobs experienced earnings losses of up to 40%.