The spring shutdowns delivered a gut punch to owners of businesses from salons and daycare centers to tattoo parlors.
At the onset of the pandemic 140,104 were marked temporarily closed on Yelp.com, but by August that had fallen to 65,769. That drop, however, is not entirely driven by businesses reopening; instead, many have simply gone under. More than 97,966 businesses have permanently shut down during the pandemic, according to Yelp.com’s Local Economic Impact Report.
And it may only get worse.
While many parts of the economy have begun to hum again, many small businesses are still struggling and report needing further economic aid and stimulus to survive.
In fact, “if economic trends continue at this rate, one in five business owners anticipates they won’t make it until the end of the year,” Kevin Kuhlman, the vice president of federal government relations for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a nonprofit small-business advocacy group, recently told Fortune.
But not all small businesses have been equally affected. According to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report in August, the number of active Black small-business owners fell 41% from February through April (nearly twice the rate of non-Black-owned businesses), as many struggled to access programs like the Paycheck Protection Program.
More aid, however, is still up in the air. Although Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said that passing a standalone PPP bill would be the “easiest” way to get additional help to small businesses (as there is over $130 billion in unused funds), Congress has thus far stalled on passing another package.
Meanwhile, the forgiveness portion for businesses who received loans through the PPP is coming due, although many banks still want more clarity on the process, while advocacy groups have asked smaller loans be forgiven altogether.
