COVID business bump a matter of 'magnitude, not direction'

Brook Fox, writing in the Financial Times, looked into new business formation during the pandemic. "The upsurge that began during the tumult of the early pandemic has continued since the start of 2021. In January alone there were nearly half a million new business starts in the US," she writes. 

She notes that ore than 4.4m new businesses have been created in the US since last March, according to the Census Bureau. Faculty Associate John Haltiwanger told her, “One thing we tend to see is a countercyclical self-employment pattern during deep recessions. People can’t get a job so they employ themself. What’s unusual about this pandemic is the magnitude, not the direction.”

The Covid entrepreneurs: Americans start millions of new businesses, Financial Times, John Haltiwanger, March 8, 2021