Impact of COVID-19 on Household’s Clothing Expenditure

Abstract

This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on Korean and U.S. households' clothing expenditure. The raw data sets from the “Household Income and Expenditure Survey” and consumer price index data of 2016 and 2020 produced by Statistics Korea (http://kostat.go.kr/), and the raw data sets from the “Consumer Expenditure Surveys” by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/) and consumer price index data between 2016-2020 were used for this study. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Consumer spending on clothing had decreased significantly since the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea and the US, indicating a significant impact on the global clothing market due to sharply decreasing demand for clothing due to income decline, telecommuting and social distancing. The apparel expenditures in the U.S. and Korea declined even before COVID-19 but decreased even more after COVID-19. However, Korea shows a different trend in comparison to the U.S. &nbsp