From late April through early June, Georgia governor Brian Kemp moved steadily to reopen his state’s economy. Restaurant seating returned. Live venues reopened. And at first, all that optimism seemed well-placed.
“We are headed in the right direction in our battle with COVID-19,” Gov. Kemp declared on May 11, citing a drop in pandemic-related hospitalizations and new cases.
Then everything turned. From early June onward, Georgia has been battling an increasingly fierce COVID-19 flare-up. The state’s largest city, Atlanta, is now trying to roll back much of the spring’s reopening measures, citing safety concerns. Meanwhile, other states that reopened their economies rapidly now face similar pressures.
How much do these reversals affect the public’s outlook? A stark answer emerges from the U.S. edition of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index. The poll surveys about 5,000 people every two weeks, asking how they feel about their job security, financial well-being and career outlook. The research has run since early April, tracking how professional confidence has trended since the early days of the pandemic. Overall, U.S. confidence has ticked up slightly since April lows and is now at +31 on a scale from -100 to +100. However, that confidence varies greatly across the U.S.
Click here to see the full report from George Anders on LinkedIn.com.
Looking at the 12 most populous states, ranging from California to Virginia, it’s clear that public mood swings are sharp. In most cases, overall confidence has been recovering in states where COVID-19 cases are waning. But anxieties have climbed when the case count goes up – perhaps with a slight lag.
