(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The impact of the coronavirus on the U.S. economy has been swift, dramatic and lopsided.
Some sectors have experienced startling surges in demand (online grocery, web-conferencing, telemedicine), others near-fatal collapses (live events, airlines, car rentals).
The heatmaps below from SimilarWeb track the year-on-year changes in unique visits to websites across a variety of industries. Blue represents an above-average increase in web traffic; red represents an above-average decline.
They illustrate, for example, the impact of Black Friday and Cyber Monday on e-commerce; the spike of interest in jewelry around Valentine’s Day; and the flurry of clicks to job-search sites at the start of the new year.
Now, more than two months after President Trump declared a state of national emergency, some hard-hit U.S. sectors are showing signs of warming back up (fashion, jewelry and real-estate), and the growing popularity of other sectors (website-building) suggest the acceptance, at least in the medium term, of a new normal.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Ben Schott is a Bloomberg Opinion visual columnist. He created the Schott’s Original Miscellany and Schott’s Almanac series, and writes for newspapers and magazines around the world.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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