Initiative for a Competitive Inner City Releases Third Report in Series Analyzing How the Coronavirus Recession and Recovery Have Affected Businesses and Jobs in the Nation's 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas

March 16, 2022 /3BL Media/ - Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) today published the third report in its series analyzing How the Coronavirus Recession and Recovery Have Affected Businesses and Jobs in the 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas.

The report summarizes the key findings of ICIC’s analysis of the most detailed and comprehensive information about what has happened to businesses and jobs in these metros from the onset of the pandemic in the second quarter of 2020 through the fourth quarter of 2021.

ICIC’s research tracks changes in the numbers of businesses and jobs for each of the 100 metropolitan areas and provides more specific detail on small, medium-sized, and large businesses; Black- and Hispanic- or Latino-owned businesses; under-resourced communities (heavily populated urban and suburban areas of concentrated poverty and low income) and non-under-resourced communities, and major industries.

“Severe supply chain constraints combined with the onset of the COVID-19 Omicron variant and associated policy efforts likely stalled recovery for both businesses and jobs during the final quarter of 2021,” said ICIC CEO Steve Grossman. “While businesses of all sizes and ownership across all racial and ethnic groups were impacted, smaller businesses and Asian- and Pacific Islander- and Hispanic-/Latino-owned businesses bore the brunt of the losses. We must ensure that resources are directed to these small business owners and entrepreneurs across the country so they are able to survive the pandemic’s continued economic impact.”

The report is accompanied by an online data dashboard that can be used to search for customized information on what has happened to jobs or businesses in a specific business category or demographic group for each of the top 100 metros. For each quarter in this four-report series, one of the top 100 metros will be selected for a deeper evaluation using data available from the data dashboard.

The third report in this series focuses on the Los Angeles metro area which, with a job loss of 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021, had the second lowest job growth rate among the 100 largest metro areas in that quarter. Los Angeles also had some of the greatest percentage job losses of all top 100 metro areas its under-resourced communities, among its smallest businesses, and among its Black-owned businesses.

Los Angeles’ job losses in the fourth quarter were most severe in the entertainment industry, a key driver of the region’s economy, and in the region’s smallest businesses. From the start of the pandemic through the third quarter of 2020, the entertainment industry enjoyed the strongest recovery of all key industries in Los Angeles, but the industry’s employment fell from 96% of its pre-crisis level in the third quarter of 2021 to 92% in the fourth quarter. Employment in businesses with one to four employees fell from 80% of its pre-crisis employment level in the third quarter to 75% in the fourth quarter.

Among the report’s key findings:

• In the top 100 metro areas as a whole, both the number of businesses and the number of jobs shrank between the third and fourth quarter of 2021. By the fourth quarter, the number of jobs was at 91% of its pre-crisis level and the number of businesses was at 84%.
• Although the top 100 metro areas as a whole lost jobs in the fourth quarter of 2021, some individual metro areas gained jobs and others lost them. Among the top 100 metro areas, Jackson, MS, had the fastest job growth rate (3.0%) from the third to the fourth quarter of 2021, while Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA, had the slowest (a job loss of 2.6%).
• Businesses of all sizes shed jobs during the fourth quarter of 2021, but the smallest businesses suffered much more than larger ones. In the fourth quarter, businesses with one to four employees had just 79% of the jobs they had at the start of the pandemic, while those with 100 or more employees had 97%.
• Although businesses owned by people of all large racial/ethnic groups lost jobs during the fourth quarter of 2021, Asian- and Pacific Islander- and Hispanic-/Latino-owned businesses lost jobs more rapidly than Black- and white-owned businesses. From the third quarter to the fourth quarter, the job growth rate was -1.2% for Asian- and Pacific Islander-owned businesses, -1.0% for Hispanic/Latino-owned businesses, -0.7% for Black-owned businesses, and -0.5% for white-owned businesses.
• All the key industries in the top 100 metro areas shed jobs during the fourth quarter of 2021. Healthcare was affected least of all industries, declining slightly from 96.4% of its pre-crisis employment in the third quarter to 96.1% in the fourth. The accommodation and food services industry (including hotels, restaurants, and similar businesses) suffered most while the number of healthcare jobs remained essentially the same in the fourth quarter as in the third quarter.

“The reports and dashboard are useful tools for policymakers, elected officials, small business assistance providers, community and economic development professionals, community foundations, researchers, and others who want to know how the recession and recovery have affected businesses and jobs in their metropolitan areas and how they can best target assistance to the businesses and locations that need it most,” said Howard Wial, Senior Vice President and Director of Research for ICIC and co-author of the report. 

To download the full report, How the Coronavirus Recession and Recovery Have Affected Businesses and Jobs in the 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas, and access the accompanying data dashboard visit: https://icic.org/latest-research/.

This work was funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The contents of the report are solely the responsibility of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.

The Business Dynamics Research Consortium: a project of the University of Wisconsin System, Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship, provided the Your-economy Time Series (YTS) data used for this report.

About Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) was founded by renowned Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter in 1994 as a research and strategy organization that today is widely recognized as the preeminent authority on urban economic growth. ICIC drives inclusive economic prosperity in under-resourced communities through innovative research and programs to create jobs, income, and wealth for local residents. Learn more at www.icic.org or @icicorg.