The State of Our Small Businesses
How much help do they really need?
As congress goes to debate the next round of stimulus, opinions abound at how much is the right amount of support. Wouldn't it be cool if elected leaders used hard data as the backdrop to their position? Being a company engaged in economic data stories we got curious about what is the current state of our small businesses?
The Headlines
Small businesses open: down 34%>
Change in revenue: down 33%
The chart below shows the ongoing change in small business activity, comparing percent of those businesses open compared to January 2020 as a baseline, as well as change in revenue
That's all interesting and the protracted period of having more than 25% of these businesses shut (or out of business altogether) certainly makes the case that more help is needed. But how does this look when broken down by community attributes?
To slice this further, here we have a visualization of small businesses at different zip code income brackets:
Which sectors have been impacted most and may require more financial support? That answer lies in this visualization broken down for NAICS supersector. The disparities here are striking:
If you think data like this should be part of the national conversation on economic stimulus spending, we encourage you to make some noise! Beyond small businesses there are granular datasets available on employment (including low/mid/high wage earners), consumer spending, job postings and more – down to the local level!
As always please get in touch if we can help you tell your local story.
