More evidence that a lot of sectors still haven't come back in the COVID World

It’s a relatively mundane report from the Census Bureau, but I think the list of “Selected Services Revenue” tells you just how much we’ve lost in 2020, and how widely different the effects of the COVID World has been in certain sectors of our economy. As you can see, there are industries that still had revenues be down 30-70% in September 2020, before COVID made its most recent surge which led to further shutdowns and limitations. But if you're in software and delivery services, things are better than ever.

You can also see these disparities in November's retail sales report, which dropped on Thursday and showed that an already-shaky situation in brick-and-mortar retail was getting worse.

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November 2020, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $546.5 billion, a decrease of 1.1 percent (±0.5 percent) from the previous month, but 4.1 percent (±0.7 percent) above November 2019. Total sales for the September 2020 through November 2020 period were up 5.2 percent (±0.5 percent) from the same period a year ago. The September 2020 to October 2020 percent change was revised from up 0.3 percent (±0.5 percent) to down 0.1 percent (±0.2 percent).

Very bad sign for the Holiday shopping season that so many brick-and-mortar types of stores rely on. The declines in the last 2 months were especially severe in the types of stores that used to be the places where people would do their Holiday shopping at the mall.

And while overall retail sales are higher from where we were this time last year, a retail sector may be much worse or better than they were in late 2019, because of how buying habits have changed in the COVID World.

But you know what's going gangbusters as 2020 ends? Stuff that richer people can buy to enhance their wealth. While many retail areas flail, we're in a Bubbly home construction boom.

Housing starts rose 1.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.547 million units last month, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. That lifted homebuilding closer to its pace of 1.567 million units in February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast starts holding steady at a rate of 1.530 million units in November. Homebuilding surged 12.8% on a year-on-year basis.

Permits for future homebuilding raced 6.2% to a rate of 1.639 million units in November. Permits typically lead starts by one to two months.

Single-family homebuilding, the largest share of the housing market, rose 0.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.186 million units, the highest level since April 2007.

Single-family starts have increased for seven straight months. The housing market is defying slowing economic growth, thanks to pent-up demand and historically low mortgage rates. Recent data have shown a moderation in the labor market and consumer spending half-way through the fourth quarter as the country battles a fresh wave of Covid-19 cases.

And while jobless claims reached their highest levels in 3 months on Thursday, main indexes of the stock market reached record highs on "optimism" regarding a (pared-back) stimulus and hopes that things will recover in 2021 after Americans get vaccinated.

This situation feels ominous for 2021. Not only will the reduced spending and increased layoffs in several service sectors be a significant headwind, but you gotta think that at some point eveyrone will have gone into their new home, with little demand left to keep up this level of production. And any confidence boost from a COVID vaccine is likely to be counteracted by the fact that A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE NO MONEY AND NO SECURITY.

We can't continue with a country where the economic realities are so different for groups of tens of millions Americans. You can already sense the seething anger as stimulus talks drag on, and many are going to (rightfully) demand for those who have thrived in COVID World to give redirect some of the gains they've been able to grab while so much of the country has been suffering.