Speakers:

Catherine Buffington, Economist, U.S. Census Bureau

Jason Fields, Senior Researcher for Demographic Programs, U.S. Census Bureau

John Friedman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs and Public Policy, Brown University; Founding Co-Director, Harvard University's Opportunity Insights

Moderator: Julia Pollak, Labor Economist, ZipRecruiter; Co-Chair, NABE Data/Statistics Roundtable

The Economic Tracker was released May 7, 2020, by Opportunity Insights to measure social and economic impacts of COVID-19 and to track recovery activity. It measures selected economic activity at a high frequency and at low levels of geography using data from private firms and publicly-available data. It reports real-time statistics on consumer spending, business revenue, employment rates and other key indicators. John Friedman, Professor of Economics and International and Political Affairs at Brown University, was a key contributor to the Economic Tracker and will be joining us to talk about this innovative tool. 

The Census Bureau, in collaboration with multiple federal agencies, deployed two new surveys to measure the social and economic effects of COVID-19 on American households and small businesses. The Household Pulse Survey collects data to measure household experiences during the pandemic. Data are disseminated in near real-time to inform federal and state response and recovery planning. The Small Business Pulse Survey collects data to measure the effect of changing business conditions on our nation’s small businesses. It issues weekly data products that provide high-frequency, detailed information on the challenges small businesses are facing. Jason Fields, Senior Researcher for Demographic Programs at the Census Bureau, and Catherine Buffington, an Economist at the Census Bureau, were instrumental in designing the surveys and will join us to discuss these new surveys and resulting products.