The annualized turnover rate for over-the-road truckload drivers held steady in the last three months of 2020, according to the American Trucking Associations’ Quarterly Employment Report. In the fourth quarter, the turnover rate for truckload fleets with more than $30 million in annual revenue was unchanged at a 92% annualized rate, while the churn rate for smaller truckload carriers dipped two percentage points to 72%.
Since restrictions on social gatherings were introduced in March 2020, many U.S. consumers have turned to animal adoption to keep themselves company during the coronavirus pandemic. The pet industry as a whole observed 18 percent growth from March to December of 2020, with most of this growth driven by the pet supplies sector. Sales for the pet supplies sector have increased in the COVID-19 era. Meanwhile, pet care companies (dog walking, dog hotels, pet vacations and entertainment services) have been dealt a huge blow, as consumers have stayed home and sought new ways to keep their furry friends entertained. Year-over-year growth for pet care companies dropped 47 percent in March 2020 and has not fully recovered.
Since the end of 2015 Germany has attracted more investment capital than any other European commercial property market. Real Capital Analytics has recorded transactions totaling €372 billion ($438 billion) in the last five years, €47 billion more than in the U.K., the second most active market. One of the explanations offered for this rise to prominence is the U.K.’s June 2016 decision to leave the European Union, subsequent to which, Germany has been labelled as Europe’s new safe haven and a home for capital that might previously have gone elsewhere.
Driving through any big city is rarely a pleasure, but for Londoners, a move towards private transport, LTNs and cycle lanes is causing congestion that could test even the most patient drivers. Huq’s high-frequency geo-location data records the speed of drivers across the UK’s A-Road network throughout the pandemic to provide an up-to-date measure of delays. The indicator shows that congestion in London saw a significant increase of over 30pts in cases with traffic volumes still well below what it was before the pandemic.
Recent announcements of forbearance extension by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) came on the heels of millions of forbearance plans that are about to expire at the end of March under the CARES Act. The new extensions allow an additional six months’ stay in forbearance, making borrowers eligible for a total of 18 months of temporary payment relief. The latest loan performance data from CoreLogic reveals that 75% of the pandemic forbearance-loan pool consists of loans in forbearance since April.
Everyone’s talking about non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Whether this craze is a flash in the pan or a major shift for the blockchain economy, one thing is certain: NFTs, and NFT enthusiasts, are going mobile. Investment, trading, and crypto apps received a lot of attention over the past few months as crypto prices soared and investors like Roaring Kitty made trading more interesting. In fact, Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, Webull and more broke their lifetime records for engagement during the Game Stop saga.
Crash Bandicoot: On the Run has launched across iOS and Google Play worldwide on Mar 25, 2021. In just one day, the game has garnered over 9.1 million downloads in the top 8 markets alone including the US, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Russia, France, Germany and Spain. The game saw 2.6 million downloads in the US alone, ranking #1 Overall by downloads across iOS and Google Play.
The annual pace of U.S. commercial property price growth reached 6.8% in February, a rate comparable to the months preceding the country’s initial coronavirus lockdowns, the latest RCA CPPI: US summary report shows. The US National All-Property Index rose 0.9% in February from January. The office index increased 2.0% year-over-year in February. Prices in the office market have slowly crept back from the middle of last year when the index was flat, but are still only increasing at half the rate seen a year ago. Suburban office prices kept the office index afloat last month, gaining 2.2% year-over-year.
While the past year has made good news a rarity, we’re happy to say we’ve found a bright spot: job listings in the U.S. are back to pre-covid levels. (We’ll pause here for a collective ‘woo hoo!’). Make no mistake, with the pandemic still far from over, we remain in historic and uncharted territory. Unemployment was still at 6.2% in February, and we are in the midst of a female recession with countless women now missing from the labor force. However, when little feels familiar or certain, it is encouraging to see good news in the job listings numbers. We anticipate employment numbers will also continue to rise, as job listings are generally predictive of future hires. We saw job demand continue to rise since the pandemic crash witnessed last spring, and 2021 has largely seen that growth continue.
The housing market, like many segments of the economy, had a unique year in 2020. Pandemic-induced demand – for homes with more living space and located in lower density neighborhoods -- coupled with historically favorable mortgage rates and declining for-sale inventories led to the most competitive market seen since at least 2008. Buyers competing for fewer properties on the market were generally willing to offer relatively more than they have been in recent years, leading to the ratio of closing price to listing price reaching the highest level since at least 2008.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over a year ago a large portion of US schoolchildren were forced to move their studies online as physical schools closed for safety reasons. At the same time, many adults who were sheltering in place and couldn’t entertain themselves out of the house turned to online education to pass the time. How have these trends held up over the last year? And what do they signal about Coursera’s upcoming IPO? In today’s Insight flash, we look at overall subindustry trends, how those differ by demographic, and which companies have done the best job bringing customers back after their first purchase.
ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database, today released its Q1 2021 Single Family Rental Market report, which ranks the best U.S. markets for buying single-family rental properties in 2021. The report analyzed single family rental returns in 495 U.S. counties, each with a population of at least 100,000 and sufficient rental and home price data. The average annual gross rental yield (annualized gross rent income divided by median purchase price of single-family homes) among the 495 counties is 7.7 percent for 2021, down from an average of 8.4 percent in 2020. Within that group of counties, the yield declined from 2020 to 2021 in 87 percent of counties. However, it’s not all bad news for rental property investors.
The pandemic has significantly increased the demand for at-home fitness, so much so that health and fitness app downloads increased 30% in 2020. Not only are consumers spending more time working out at home, but they are looking for new, interactive ways to keep moving. And many have turned to connected devices to keep moving. In fact, within the top 10 IOT (Internet of Things) and fitness tracking apps, we've seen download growth in the triple digits from Strava and Nike Training Club — the latter offering access to premium features for free during the height of the pandemic — a change they made permanent in July 2020.
Hunger is an acute challenge for far too many American households. This was true before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is even more pressing today. Across the US, 19.5 million households are food insecure—defined as those without the financial resources needed for consistent access to enough food—a growth of 45% since March 2020. More acutely, nearly 12.2 million of these households report food insufficiency, or not having enough food to eat at some point in the last week. This striking number suggests that existing relief programs and aid are not meeting their needs.
As we mark one whole year of living through the COVID pandemic, much has changed in our daily lives. There is significant interest in understanding changes to many of our regular behaviors, including how we work, learn, and shop. What will become permanent, and what will “return to normal”? For example, much has been made about an “urban exodus” during the pandemic – people leaving cities for the more relaxed countryside. But is this true? If so, what does it mean for transportation?
The pandemic has had a mixed impact on vitamin companies. While wellness giant GNC declared bankruptcy in June and announced it would close 1,200 stores, DTC vitamin companies are flourishing. More specifically, ecommerce vitamin companies like Ritual and Persona have seen their sales and market share increase during the pandemic—appealing to customers through a combination of personalized offerings, a focus on online sales, and influencer marketing. For the past three years, sales for the vitamin category have been trending downward. By Q4 2020, vitamin sales were 68 percent of what they were in Q1 2018. Interestingly, the vitamin market follows a pattern every year, in which sales spike in Q1 before tapering off for the remaining three quarters.
Population mobility in the UK remains around half of its pre-pandemic level as we look back on a year of restrictions. Huq’s high-frequency footfall data provides an accurate measure of how policy has impacted movement in the UK throughout the pandemic, which averages around -40pts throughout the last year. As restrictions eased last summer, high-street footfall reached a peak of 75% of the January 2020 mean in July and August, before dropping to a series low of 40% at the start of this year.
The pandemic has tested businesses across all industries, but it seems some are emerging stronger than ever. One example of this may be Salesforce. Job listings at the customer relationship management (CRM) software giant have drastically increased lately. Jobs listings are up 622% since beginning their climb in June of 2020. Prior to this rise, jobs had been relatively steady since 2018.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending March 20, 2021. Comparisons of the current week with the same week in 2020 are inflated because of the widespread economy-wide shutdowns — and subsequent large reduction in rail volumes — last year at this time. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 513,325 carloads and intermodal units, up 11.6 percent compared with the same week last year.
The U.K. based online food delivery company is going public at the end of the month. The Deliveroo IPO is expected to be the biggest Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in almost a decade. Backed by Amazon, and seeking a valuation of £8.8 billion ($12 billion), this IPO is something to get excited about. According to CNBC, Deliveroo says it will use the proceeds of the IPO to continue to invest in innovation and push deeper in on demand grocery deliveries.
