More than a year after the pandemic began, the US economy is on the cusp of a full recovery. But reaching that milestone still won’t be easy.
CNN Business’ Back-to-Normal Index, developed in partnership with Moody’s Analytics last year, shows the US economy is 90% of the way back to where it was before the pandemic began over a year ago.
The index, which is comprised of 37 national and seven state-level indicators, had bottomed out at around 57% in April 2020.
But despite the immense improvement, getting that last 10% back is going to be hard. The vaccination effort is ongoing and consumers are once again spending money on dining and travel — yet the nation remains millions of jobs short of pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile many workers continue to feel hesitant about returning to in-person work, and the childcare riddle is still unsolved in many areas where schools and day cares aren’t yet operating at full capacity.
