Telework and COVID-19 Resiliency in the Southeastern United States

One potential driver of economic resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic was the ability to telework. This paper estimates the factors influencing changes in unemployment rates for states in the Southeastern US during two distinct periods: (1) the initial months of the pandemic, and (2) the recovery experienced from April through December 2020. Our results suggest industrial composition and demographic factors were strongly associated with the early rise in unemployment and the subsequent decline during the first nine months of the pandemic. The ability to telework was a crucial factor in changing unemployment levels, with local broadband adoption levels driving this relationship. Telework had a positive impact for counties with a high broadband adoption rate from February to April. However, counties with a high ability to telework, but low broadband adoption rates, were held back from recovering from April to December.