Facebook recently released an updated Global State of Small Business report. The update reflects that state of small businesses around the world one year into the pandemic, the news isn’t great. However, the news does get better the closer to home you look. According to the world-wide study of small businesses during the pandemic, 26% of small business worldwide have been lost. In the United States 22% and in Florida 16%.
Obviously, it’s great to see Florida’s businesses faring 33% better than businesses globally and 27% better than American businesses. It’s even more impressive when you consider the consensus economic expectations were for Florida’s economy to be one of the three hardest hit in the country. Instead, ours is one of the best, a true testament to the pragmatic policies of Governor DeSantis.
This stands in contrast to what were the three hardest hit states for small businesses. They are Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. Florida’s small businesses have literally performed twice as well as New York’s. What’s more is that those states all performed considerably worse than the rest of the world on average which further illustrates the impact of pandemic policy on businesses which are the most economically sensitive. While it’s unfortunate to have lost 16% of our small businesses, the relative this is yet one more reason to feel good about Florida.
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