Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: New Business Openings Exceed Pre-Pandemic Levels

Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce:

July 29, 2021

This economy is rebounding from the COVID-19 downturn at a solid pace. Many consumers appear ready to spend, and more people are fully vaccinated every day. That’s good news for small and medium-sized service and retail businesses that were affected by the pandemic. Around 15% to 20% of small businesses shut down during the health crisis, but many are beginning to reopen.
A recent study by Yelp showed people are opening businesses at levels not seen since the pandemic shut down larger parts of the economy in early 2020.

There were 150,940 new business openings in the second quarter, Yelp found, up 8% from the pre-pandemic second quarter of 2019 and up slightly from the 146,160 estimated in the first quarter of this year. The South and parts of the Midwest led the way. Key categories like home services (48%), local services (30%) and professional services (31%) were up from the pre-pandemic second quarter of 2019.

In the second quarter, 60,502 businesses reopened, marking the highest volume of reopenings in the last year. In April alone there were 38,725 reopenings, the largest monthly volume of reopenings since May 2020, Yelp repo.

This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.