Article source: ConstructConnect

• Beyond stock market prices, which can display a lot of ‘chatter’ (i.e., large up and down changes), there’s another important daily indicator of how the economy is doing, electricity usage. With retail stores, offices and factories closed during the coronavirus crisis, the decline in the commercial consumption of electricity has been greater than the increase in the amount of power used in residences. There’s been a big increase in the number of people set up with laptop and desktop computers to work from home.

• Residential power consumption has shot way up on weekdays but has not increased much on weekends versus previous patterns. This is confirmation of what we’ve already intuitively grasped, that the distinction between weekdays and weekends has blurred. Everybody being tied together by smart phones started the ball rolling years ago.

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