Positive signs for pandemic-hit small business – but more stimulus still needed

It’s been a very difficult year for many small businesses. But, according to data collected weekly by the Census Bureau, conditions are improving. This comes from the bureau’s weekly Small Business Pulse data, which collects information surveyed by email and other means based on requests sent to about 885,000 unique small businesses with a target population of non-farm, single-location employer businesses that employed 499 or fewer people and had and receipts of $1,000 or more.

According to its most recent survey, which covered the weekly period through 5 September, things are getting better for many small businesses around the country. How much better? It’s looking hopeful, but there are still major issues.

For starters the number of small businesses who said they were “largely and negatively affected” by the Covid-19 crisis has declined from more than 50% at the end of April to about 31%. Roughly 24% of businesses recently said they saw either no effect, or even a positive effect from the crisis compared with 10% at the beginning of the ordeal. More small businesses than ever are now confident of recovery.

Even the state data has improved. At the beginning of the crisis, businesses in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Washington and California were among the hardest hit by economic shutdowns. But whereas, for example, 56% of businesses were negatively affected in California back in April, that number has decreased to 36% by September. In New York state 62% of small businesses were negatively affected during the worst of the pandemic but now that number has declined to 40%. That’s because as governments are slowly reopening, the number of businesses that were forced to close for at least one day a week has decreased from 41% to 18%.

But many small businesses are still having a significant cashflow problem. At the beginning of the crisis, approximately 56% said it would take less