BLOOMBERG – The surge of U.S. business formations in the back half of 2020 has been one of the pandemic’s many surprises.
After cratering by 30% in the weeks following the March lockdowns, paperwork filed by prospective businesses started growing in June and finished the year ahead of 2019’s tally by almost a quarter, according to a U.S. Census Bureau analysis of federal tax documents.
It was the highest annual total on record, according to John Haltiwanger, an economist at the University of Maryland.
The upswing in entrepreneurship comes against the backdrop of mass closures of established small businesses as the coronavirus lockdowns shuttered shops and kept people at home. The National Restaurant Association estimates that 17% of U.S. restaurants — or about 110,000 establishments — have closed either permanently or for the long term. Read more.
Photographer: Matt Odom/Bloomberg