Bi-Weekly data additions

13 - 25 August 2023

August 28, 2023

Arnaud Lieugaut

Highlights

‍United States

We’ve added a new source: WFH Research and its monthly Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (SWAA). It tracks the evolution of remote work and hybrid working arrangements since the beginning of the pandemic. The dataset allows us to compare industry sectors, as well as trends in the 10 largest US cities.

The chart below examines different industries over the past twelve months. The top-ranked sectors have had the biggest increases in fully on-site or in-office work days; government and education lead the way.

Interestingly, the transportation and warehousing sector has seen the percentage of fully on-site work days shrink significantly since summer 2022.

The IT sector is another interesting case. Its post-pandemic trend has seen a significant amount of remote work days replaced with hybrid-designated arrangements.

Access the chart here

WFH Research

Source & Release > United States [us, Region] > WFH Research

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World

We’ve added additional statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) covering the El Niño meteorological phenomenon – known by the acronym ENSO (El Niño / Southern Oscillation).

Datasets are now available for three more important acronyms: sea surface temperatures (SST), outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and sea level anomalies (SLA).

In the chart below, we displayed the SST anomalies for the Pacific Ocean’s equatorial Niño 3.4 region, which is considered as the benchmark to measure the phenomenon.

The most commonly used threshold to detect El Niño’s appearance is a positive SST deviation from normal (i.e., an anomaly) surpassing +0.5 Celsius degrees for five consecutive months. These periods are highlighted in red in the chart below, which tracks the last 40 years.

The dataset allows us to go a step further, examining deep convection phenomena. These are characterised by anomalous patterns of precipitation and temperatures extending well beyond the equatorial Pacific, and require certain conditions: an SST anomaly above +0.5 Celsius degrees from March to June, or a SST anomaly above +1.5 Celsius degrees from November to January. Periods where these criteria are met are highlighted in green in the chart.

The current value for the SST anomaly series indicates that we indeed currently meet the criteria for El Niño, resulting in heavier-than-usual rainfall for some Pacific-facing regions and droughts for others. We also recently met the criteria for a deep convection event.

Access the chart here

ENSO Indicators

Source & Release > United States [us, Region] > National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) > ENSO Indicators [rel_usnoaaensoi, Release]

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‍Australia

We’ve added detailed passenger traffic information from train stations in New South Wales, the state that contains Sydney and its suburbs. Entries to and exits from more than 320 stations are covered.

In the chart below, we chose to aggregate all monthly train-station entries into one composite series. While passenger traffic increased from its low point in August 2021, the latest monthly observation (July 2023) is still 37 percent below the pre-pandemic trend.

Access the chart here

Train Station Monthly Usage

Country & Region > Australia [au, Region] > Transport & Communications [tran, Category] > Traffic > Train > Train Station Monthly Usage

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North Macedonia

We’ve just added consumer price index (CPI) weightings for the Balkan nation. This allows users to calculate which sectors are contributing to inflation, as the chart below visualises for a year-on-year basis.