During the 12 months from 1 March 2020 through February 2021, the U.S. economic lockdown politicians imposed during the pandemic ended 200,000 more businesses than would have closed during a normal economy, a study published on 15 April by the U.S. Federal Reserve has found.
About 600,000 U.S. businesses, or roughly 8.5 percent, close in a typical year, the study noted.
About two-thirds of the additional businesses that closed in the last year were individual enterprises; about one-third were franchises of chains or divisions of larger companies, the study said.
Personal service businesses, such as hair salons, were hit hardest and accounted for more than half the extra losses.
The estimates account for businesses that already have closed. Many more that have survived but been damaged by the lockdown may yet fail.
TREND FORECAST: Last spring, when the COVID War was launched and politicians locked down nations, states, and cities, the word from the commoners was, “It’ll come back.”
It did, for “essential” businesses, for equity market gamblers and hi-tech sectors that thrived as the human world and human touch declined.
While there will be a bounce-back, it won’t come back as it was in 2019. The Bigs will get bigger and the vast majority of those that went out of business will not return.
TRENDPOST: The Fed study also did not include details about the fate of roughly 26 million U.S. workers who are self-employed and have no other employees. Business failures are the highest, and least well-documented, among gig and contract workers and other one-person enterprises.
