The U.S. Census has created a Small Business Pulse survey to track and measure how small businesses are faring during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They released their first set of findings last week (the data was collected between April 26th and May 2nd) and, not surprisingly, they found small businesses are struggling.
As the Census chart below (click to enlarge) shows, 51% of the small businesses surveyed reported that the pandemic was having a large negative effect on their business. Another 39% reported it has had a moderate negative effect.
Only 2.5% reported the pandemic has had a positive effect on their business.
The industries with the highest percentages of businesses reporting a large negative effect are:
- Accommodation and food services - 83%
- Arts, entertainment and recreation - 75%
- Educational services - 74%
- Healthcare and social assistance - 70%
- Retail trade - 53%
- Transportation and warehousing - 52%
The data also shows that 74.9% of small businesses applied for loans from the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). However, only about half (38%) received funding from the program.
Given how liberal the PPP qualification rules are, this is a surprisingly small approval percentage. This likely means the PPP will not be as effective as hoped.
The pulse survey is scheduled to run weekly through June, so the survey will be very useful in tracking how small businesses are doing over that time period.
The survey respondents are employer small businesses with 1-499 employees and at least $1000 in revenue.
