Small business closures across the U.S. and the world are creeping back toward their pandemic peaks, according to a report from Facebook and the Small Business Roundtable, CNBC.com reported. “It continues to be a very painful time for small businesses,” John Stanford, co-executive director of the Small Business Roundtable, told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” on Thursday. The report, which surveyed over 35,000 small and medium-size businesses across the world, found that 22% of U.S. small businesses were closed in February. Those figures were up from October’s 14%. At the peak in May, the pandemic saw 23% of small and medium-size businesses closed — only 1 percentage point higher than the current closure rate. While the overall closures are nearing Covid highs, the report found that different areas of the country were experiencing varying degrees of difficulty. Some states, like Maine, Idaho and Colorado, were seeing 9%-10% closures, while others like New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts were seeing at least 30% closed. Within states, the report also found that certain demographics were getting hit harder than others: 27% of minority-led small and medium-size businesses reported closures, compared with 18% of others. Female-led businesses saw 25% closure rates, while 20% of male-led businesses closed.
