Small business owners expect a slow return to normal
Most entrepreneurs have their companies back up and running, but few are expecting it’ll be business as usual anytime soon. While eight in 10 small businesses in the U.S. have fully or partially reopened, owners expect the effects of the coronavirus pandemic to stick around: 55% say that it will be six months to a year before the economic climate returns to “normal.”
That’s according to a poll on the impact of the coronavirus on small businesses released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MetLife. The online survey of approximately 500 U.S. business owners, the latest in a monthly series, took place between May 21-27.
This latest survey, “not surprisingly, looks different from the two prior ones, in both good and optimistic ways — and ways that ought to inform public policymaking going forward,” says Neil Bradley, executive vice president of the Chamber.
Bradley calls the figure on reopening “good news,” but says the long-term outlook for recovery is concerning.
The level of optimism varied by location. Among businesses in the West, 77% said they are anxious about having to close again or stay closed because of a potential second wave of the coronavirus, compared with 74% in the Northeast, 62% in the Midwest and 55 % in the South.
Overall, more than half of small businesses that lost employees due to the pandemic said they hope to rehire them in the next six months.
Meanwhile, eight in 10 business owners surveyed said they are planning to make changes to promote safety in their workplaces. Roughly 40% of respondents said they will require employees to wear protective equipment and customers to stand 6 feet away from one another. Nearly half plan to increase their cleaning or disinfection efforts.