Every industry has felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – but some have clearly been impacted more deeply than others. Grocery stores saw soaring sales as customers stocked up on supplies. Revenue from sports venues, on the other hand, came to a crashing halt.
A look at incidents by industry tells a similar tale. Riskonnect examined the U.S. property and casualty incident data of over 400 organizations across 20 industries to help companies determine if their COVID-19 incident volume is consistent with industry peers.
While it’s difficult to tell what the long-term implications will be, current incident experience fluctuates wildly by industry.
Travel, entertainment, and hospitality. Government mandates forced theme parks, casinos, and hotels to shut down completely. With no customers and no employees on the premises, the volume of incidents dropped dramatically for these companies. In fact, the number of incidents logged by the travel, entertainment, and hospitality industry plunged by a staggering 95%, comparing April 2020 to April 2019.
Retail, wholesale, pharmacy. At the other end of the spectrum is the retail, wholesale, and pharmacy industry. Many in this industry were considered essential services and have remained open for the duration. Increased traffic in stores, as well as heightened exposure of front-line workers like grocery-store clerks, contributed to an increase in incidents of 36%, comparing April 2020 to April 2019.
Manufacturing. Some manufacturing facilities completely shut down, while others pivoted to other products during the height of the pandemic. Overall, incidents among manufacturers dropped 51% comparing April to April.
Healthcare. Incidents in the healthcare industry dropped 17%, comparing April 2020 with April 2019. This might seem surprising, given that healthcare provider organizations were at the bullseye of the pandemic. However, many nonessential healthcare workers were furloughed to keep costs down when routine-care services closed and demand in other areas plunged as people avoided hospitals altogether for fear of contracting the virus.
Paper. High demand for paper products – including arguably the most sought-after consumer good, toilet paper – sparked a 6% increase in incidents.
For more on the impact of COVID-19 on incidents, check out the other blog in this series on incident trends by line of coverage. Meantime, more information on claims administration can be found here and here.
