The COVID-19 public health crisis has upended the lives of Californians. Millions of people have experienced serious disruptions to their jobs following social distancing public health recommendations and state and local shelter-in-place orders aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. While necessary to prevent overwhelming the state’s health care system, the business reductions and closures forced by these orders will have a severe economic impact on Californians as well as on regional economies.
This Fact Sheet shows that the major industries most immediately impacted by the COVID-19-related economic shutdown – leisure and hospitality, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and other services – employ large numbers of Californians in the state’s largest metropolitan areas.1 Without a sufficient federal response to help workers and their families, the shutdown will have a ripple effect throughout local economies as people who lose work will lose income and be forced to cut back on their spending, thus reducing demand for business more broadly.
