“We have not seen numbers like this since the 1930s and it took three years to get there,” said Kamran Afshar, director of the Kamran Afshar Data Analytics Center at DeSales University in Upper Saucon Township, which produces the index. “It is a frightening situation to be in.

“We’ll bounce off the bottom, maybe through Q4 (fourth quarter 2020) into the first quarter of 2021. Next year we’ll start to see the recovery coming,” he said.

Local economist Kamran Afshar said an October survey of businesses in the Lehigh Valley revealed signs of slower growth across several key areas, based on business projections for hiring, purchasing, and revenue figures for the next six months, as compared to the previous six months.