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NEW: Free COVID-19 GIS mapping data tool for US economic development

GIS Planning is offering US EDOs a free, interactive GIS data tool to map the impact of COVID-19, featuring JobsEQ Job Loss Vulnerability Index

Alissa Sklar
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on April 01, 2020
Alissa Sklar
Vice President of Marketing

GIS Planning is proud to release today a free, interactive GIS data tool to map the spread and impact of COVID-19 for US economic developers. This is a customized version of our popular Mapping Intelligence Component, and displays U.S. national and county-level data for the novel coronavirus, alongside Chmura's JobsEQ Job Loss Vulnerability Index. 

Economic development organizations and chambers of commerce across the U.S. are invited to post the free tool on their websites. It can be easily downloaded by clicking on the red Share Report button in the upper right hand corner, then copying the embed code and pasting it onto your EDO website. The GIF at the bottom of this post shows just how easy it is to do this. You can find information about this and our other new data layers, a new white paper and related videos on our new COVID-19 Information Center

Mapping COVID-19 economic development job loss vulnerability index

This new free, interactive GIS data tool ensures you are able to get interactive, mobile-responsive data and analysis to your regional stakeholders. The COVID-19 data comes from the New York Times and is updated daily. The JobsEQ Job Loss Vulnerability Index comes from Chmura - you can read more about it here. All of this data has also been added to the map layers for U.S. ZoomProspector clients. To use the tool, type or select the geography from the drop down box at the top, then click on the COVID-19 tab at the top of the map to choose which variables to map.

The Job Loss Vulnerability index, created by the Chmura team based on 2019 Q4 industry employment data, is a measurement of the negative impact that the coronavirus crisis can have on employment based upon a region's mix of industries. For example, accommodation and food services are projected to lose more jobs as a result of the coronavirus (in the neighborhood of 50%), compared to utilities and healthcare (with none or little expected job contraction). You can see it in the close up on the State of Kentucky ZoomProspector GIS data tool. 

An average Vulnerability Index score is 100, representing the average job loss expected in the United States. Higher scores indicate the degree to which job losses may be greater — an index of 200, for example, means the rate of job loss can be twice as large as the national average. Conversely, an index of 50 would mean a possible job loss of half the national average.

 The Vulnerability Index only measures the impact potential related to the mix of industry employment. The index does not take into account variation due to a regions' rate of virus infection, nor does it factor in local government's policies in reaction to the virus. For example, a region with a high Vulnerability Index may have little to moderate job losses if the region has only slight infection rates and local government imposes few restrictions. On the other hand, a region with a low Vulnerability Index may still incur large employment losses if the local rate of infection is high or local government restrictions are especially stringent.

The New York Times data is available for the United States as a whole and by county. Use the geography drop-down box at the top to type or select the region you want to explore. Clients in Canada and Europe will be interested to know that we are actively researching similar granular data sources for other countries; if you have a data source that may be suitable for your country, please email support@gisplanning.com

The New York Times coronavirus data tracker includes the following variables:

  • Total cases
  • Total cases per 10K population
  • Total deaths
  • New cases
  • Total deaths per 10k population
  • Cases (% growth)
  • % Age 65 plus

We are providing this free mapping tool as a service - it can be implemented by any organization. This page offers simple instructions and the embed code.

Download the COVID-19 Smart Mapping Tool

Economic Development GIS data covid19