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

BOSTON, November 12, 2021 /3BL Media/ - New research published by Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) analyzes 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 second 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 and non-under-resourced communities, and major industries.

“While the economic impact of the pandemic has been felt everywhere, business and job loss has not been felt equally across regions, industries, or demographic groups,” said ICIC CEO Steve Grossman. “In the 100 largest metropolitan areas, the fallout has been particularly damaging to Black- and Hispanic- or Latino-owned businesses. Additionally, small businesses suffered deeper employment declines than larger ones.”

The report, the first of four quarterly reports ICIC will publish on this topic, 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 report series, one of the top 100 metros will be selected for a deeper evaluation using data available from the data dashboard.

The first report focuses on the Miami metro area, which suffered the worst employment loss of any of the top 100 metros since the start of the pandemic. However, during the most recent quarter Miami improved more strongly than the top 100 metro areas as a whole. This is partly due to recovery among the Hispanic- or Latino-owned businesses and small businesses in Miami’s under-resourced communities.

“The reports and dashboard will be 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.

Among the report’s key findings:

• Jobs Recovered More Than Businesses: The number of jobs recovered more strongly than the number of businesses since the beginning of the pandemic. In the second quarter of 2021, the top 100 metro areas had 91 percent of their employment at the beginning of the pandemic but only 85 percent of their businesses.
• Top 100 Metro Rankings: Although all metros lost employment since the beginning of the pandemic, they did not suffer equally. For example, by the second quarter of 2021, total employment in Colorado Springs was 99.8 percent of its level at the beginning of the pandemic, compared to only 86 percent employment in Miami.
• Jobs in Black- and Hispanic/Latino-Owned Businesses Hit Harder Than White-Owned, But Black-Owned Businesses Rebounded Strongly: Black- and Hispanic/Latino-owned businesses lost a greater proportion of their employment than white-owned businesses. In the second quarter of 2021, Black-owned businesses and businesses owned by Hispanics or Latinos each had 93 percent of the jobs they had when the pandemic began, while white-owned businesses had 96 percent. However, the number of Black-owned businesses recovered more strongly than the number of white-owned businesses.
• Small Businesses Were Hit Harder Than Larger Ones: In the second quarter of 2021, businesses with one to four employees had only 81 percent of the jobs they had at the start of the pandemic, while those with 100 or more employees had 95 percent. However, small- and medium-sized businesses began to recover employment in the most recent quarter while larger businesses continued to decline.

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 report are solely the responsibility of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.

Resources:

• 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.
• The New Face of Under-Resourced Communities

Media: For more information or to speak with an ICIC subject matter expert, please contact Beth Bresnahan at bbresnahan@icic.org or (781) 789-6281.

About Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)

The 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.

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