The Rough Road to Recovery for Small Businesses

On December 7, Facebook released the latest wave of its “Global State of Small Business Report”, which has been tracking since the shutdown began the economic and societal impact of COVID-19 on small businesses.

According to the report: while nearly half of all firms surveyed reported a “significant impact” from the shutdowns occasioned by the latest wave of COVID-19, the industry that reported the highest impact was manufacturing, at 49%.

Agriculture, farming, and mining industries have seen the fastest rebound, as impacts from the shutdown dropped from 44% to only 22%, in the latest wave.

In keeping with previous findings however, the pandemic disproportionately impacted female business leaders: 31% of female business leaders surveyed spent more time on domestic tasks, compared to 26% of male business leaders.

Finally, and fortunately, optimism about the future among business leaders has continued to  increase across each successive survey wave. In the latest survey, 56% of respondents confirmed they were optimistic or very optimistic about the future of their business, up from 54% in Wave I.