Measuring Business Response to COVID-19 and Other Labor Market Developments

At BLS, we are always looking for new ways to produce timely, accurate, and relevant data. In the spring of 2020, it quickly became clear the COVID-19 pandemic was going to have a major impact on the labor market and working conditions in the United States and globally. New surveys require considerable time and resources, but we wanted to produce new, high-quality data about the impact of the pandemic on businesses and workers. We also knew we needed to produce timely data so they would be relevant and useful for policymakers, the business community, students, researchers, and the public.

In early 2020, our Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program was piloting a platform that could add questions to the end of an existing BLS survey. In March 2020, staff quickly began creating survey questions to ask businesses about how their operations were changing because of the pandemic. Using this platform allowed BLS to leverage existing infrastructure to quickly create and field a new survey, the Business Response Survey to the Coronavirus Pandemic. It also allowed BLS to produce detailed data by state, industry, and business size.

BLS conducted surveys about the business response to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. From the 2021 survey, 14.5 percent of establishments increased base wages because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking at the industry detail, we find that establishments in accommodation and food services, retail trade, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing increased base wages at a higher rate than the average for the nation overall.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

From the 2021 survey, we also found that 34.5 percent of establishments increased telework for some or all their employees during the pandemic. Among the industries, we found that accommodation and food services, natural resources and mining, retail trade, and construction were the least likely to increase telework.

Editor’s note: Data for this chart are available in the table below.

Among the establishments that increased telework, 60.2 percent expected to keep the increases permanent after the end of the pandemic. We found that the five states or areas with the highest expectation of continued telework were the District of Columbia (76.7 percent), Illinois (69.3 percent), North Carolina (68.5 percent), Arizona (68.1 percent) and Colorado (68.0 percent).

Editor’s note: Data for this map are available in the table below.

The 2021 survey found that 28 percent of establishments offered some or all employees an incentive to get a COVID-19 vaccination. Incentives could have been financial, paid time off, or permitting employees to remain on the clock to get a COVID-19 vaccination. The five states or areas in which establishments were most likely to offer vaccination incentives were Puerto Rico (49.3 percent), California (39.2 percent), District of Columbia (37.9 percent), Washington (32.8 percent), and Maryland (31.3 percent).

Editor’s note: Data for this map are available in the table below.

BLS produced additional estimates on telework, workplace flexibilities, changes in pay, COVID-19 workplace requirements, establishment space size, relocation, supplementing workforce, automation, drug and alcohol testing, and COVID-19 loans or grants. These estimates are available in the 2021 tables.

We’ve published new information about vaccine incentives, increasing pay, COVID-19 workplace safety measures, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and employees by industry. Also, we recently published a new article using data on telework during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year BLS is fielding another survey, asking businesses about telework, hiring, and vacancies. For telework, we are asking businesses about current telework practices, expectations about the future of telework, and telework practices before the COVID-19 pandemic. We also are asking about the ability to telework full time for new hires and vacancies. For hiring, we are asking about actions businesses have taken to attract more applicants and the length of time it takes to hire new employees with certain requirements such as professional licenses or advanced degrees. For vacancies, we are asking about how firms are advertising positions that require different education levels.

Have a question or idea for the Business Response Survey team? Email us at BRS_Inquiry@bls.gov.