Demographics Of Coronavirus Impact On Small Businesses

From February to April this year, the US saw the number of Black, Latinx and Asian small-business owners decline 41%, 32% and 26%, respectively, according to a recent report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, citing US Census Bureau data.

Over the same period, the decline in the number of immigrant small-business owners was double that of US-born small-business owners (down 36% and 18%).

Additionally, female-owned small businesses dropped 25%, which was greater than the decline for males. Read the rest at eMarketer.

Chart: Demographics Of Coronavirus Impact On Small Businesses

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Podcast Segment Transcript

This is the transcript for this segment of Episode 315 of the Beyond Social Media Show.

Pandemic’s Effect On Small Business

David: This is The Pandemic’s Effect On Small Business Ownership. This is from the National Bureau of Economic Research. It is the Coronavirus impact on the decrease in US Small business ownership and it’s by demographic. And so the way to read this is…so it breaks it out by gender, race, ethnicity and citizenship.

Gender And Race Breakdown

David: Gender: 20% of males dropped between April–between February and April. So the number of owners of small businesses who are males dropped 20% between April and–sorry, February and April of this year. 25% for females.

In the race/ethnicity, it was 17% for whites; 26% for Asian Americans; 32% for Latinx; 41% for African Americans. Devastation among small businesses is brutal for non-white audiences.

Citizenship numbers are 18% for US-born and 36% for immigrants; and you know what, that’s where most of our small business–that’s where most of our business growth comes from.

New York City Small Businesses Devastated

BL: Absolutely. But you know, I was walking along Third Avenue just this morning and there’s an entire block that they’re all gone. The entire block of small businesses; you know, it breaks your heart.

And what has been going out of business for the longest time is drycleaners, because people don’t wear suits and ties and white shirts to work anymore. And now the nail salons are disappearing, because who’s going to go in there and spend an hour getting a mani pedi?

And you know, those are all immigrant-owned and there’s devastation in New York. It’s really awful.

Not Just New York

David: Well, it’s just not New York and it’s not just I mean…it hurts most…the effects are most dire among those who least can use can afford it: immigrants–

BL: Absolutely.

Huge Sectors Of Service Economy Effected

David: –minority-owned businesses and everything. But there are huge sectors of our society, of our–business or economy–that are being hit, regardless of what the demographics of that.

The restaurant industry, all of our–the things that give our lives richness: Going out to restaurants and meeting with friends, happy hour, concerts, you know–

BL: Dancing.

David: All of those things. Dancing, nightclubs, all of that stuff is… Who knows whether it’s going to come back–

BL: Theater.

David: Yeah.

BL: Movies, you know, I mean–

David: We are just not…we don’t have a plan to deal with it.

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