JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Mike Parson recently announced the launch of a new Economic Recovery dashboard to help track the state’s economic recovery.

“In the economy, we’re starting to see early signs of recovery,” said Rob Dixon, Missouri’s director for economic development. “Data-driven decision making is a core value of our department and it is crucial that other leaders use this data to revitalize our economy and get Missourians back to work.”

The Show Me Strong Economic Recovery Dashboard tracks metrics across multiple categories impacting businesses, communities and citizens.

Early signs of recovery

Continued unemployment claims have fallen from a peak of more than 440,234 to just over 350,490.

At the worst point this spring, Missourians employed hourly by small businesses such as restaurants and retailers worked only about 50 percent of the hours that they worked in January. The most recent data shows improvement, with a 22.9 percent decline from January levels as of May 29.

At the end of April, one survey showed only 5 percent of small businesses were seeing increases in revenue.

The latest data has climbed to more than 15 percent.

At its lowest point, credit and debit card consumer spending had fallen by roughly 35.2 percent since January. The latest data shows the state returned to within 5 percent of January levels, according to Dixon.

Finally, the data shows strong upticks in job postings in some of the hardest hit industries like leisure and hospitality.