High-frequency data from the U.S. Census Bureau during the COVID-19 pandemic: small vs. new businesses

Small businesses experienced very sharp declines in activity, business sentiment, and expectations early in the pandemic. While there has been some recovery since then, multiple indicators of small business performance remained substantially in the negative range early in 2021. These findings are from a unique high frequency, real time, survey of small employer businesses, the Census Bureau’s Small Business Pulse Survey (SBPS). In contrast, results from the high frequency, real time, Business Formation Statistics (BFS) show there has been a surge in new business applications following an initial decline. Most of these applications are for likely nonemployers; however, there has also been a surge in new applications for likely employers, especially in Retail Trade (and especially Non-store Retailers). We compare and contrast the patterns from these two new high frequency data products that provide novel insights into the distinct patterns of dynamics for existing small businesses relative to new business formations.