COVID-19 is hitting business owned by Asian Americans on multiple fronts, Reuters reported. Pandemic related closures and restrictions on indoor gatherings were particularly hard on the restaurants, stores, nail salons and other service industries in which many Asian-owned firms are concentrated. Language barriers and a dearth of banking relationships made it difficult for some business owners to access government aid, even as they coped with an added layer of fear amid a surge in hate crimes linked to racist rhetoric that blames Asians for the coronavirus. According to a report here released last month by the New York Federal Reserve and AARP that focused on older entrepreneurs who make up 80% of all small business owners, small firms owned by Asian Americans fared worse than those owned by Black Americans and Hispanic Americans — despite going into the pandemic in a stronger economic position. Some 9% of firms owned by Asian Americans were financially “distressed” in 2019 — far lower than the 19% of Black owned firms and 16% of Hispanic owned businesses given that rating based on their profitability, credit score, and business funding, according to New York Fed research. Among white-owned firms, the figure was 6%.
