Page 19 - THE SOUTH CHINA BUSINESS JOURNAL
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n it comes to views of the economy, positive outlooks are growing and negative ones are declining.
Currently, 27% of small businesses rate the overall U.S. economy as good, up from 21% who said the same
in Q1. Driving this uptick is the decreasing number of small businesses seeing the economy as bad. While
46% continue to say the national economy is poor, this is the first time this measure has fallen below 50%
during the pandemic. Just last quarter, fully 60% of small businesses said the economy was poor (a drop
of 14 points in one quarter).
Additional survey findings include:
• COVID habits may • In a tight labor • Small businesses
be here to stay. 76% of market, employers are see revenue improving
small businesses intend to holding onto the workers in the future. Over half
keep all COVID-19 safety they have. Most small (57%) of small businesses
precautions in place until businesses anticipate anticipate their revenue
the coronavirus pandemic retaining the same staffing increasing this year, up
ends. level (52% say they will 10 percentage points
do so this quarter versus compared to last quarter,
49 percent in Q1 2021). marking the most positive
Thirty-two percent plan outlook of this metric
to increase staffing (same during the pandemic.
as Q1) and around one in
ten (11%) plan to decrease
staffing over the next year.
This quarter, the SBI score is 60.0 (an increase of 4.1 points from 55.9 in Q1). Nevertheless, the new score
remains below findings before the pandemic: the Index score was 71.7 in Q1 of 2020 based on data collected
before the full economic impact of the coronavirus became apparent. The Index reached an all-time low of
39.5 in Q2 2020 and the Index is now up a substantial 20.5 points since then.
SOUTH CHINA BUSINESS JOURNAL 16
Currently, 27% of small businesses rate the overall U.S. economy as good, up from 21% who said the same
in Q1. Driving this uptick is the decreasing number of small businesses seeing the economy as bad. While
46% continue to say the national economy is poor, this is the first time this measure has fallen below 50%
during the pandemic. Just last quarter, fully 60% of small businesses said the economy was poor (a drop
of 14 points in one quarter).
Additional survey findings include:
• COVID habits may • In a tight labor • Small businesses
be here to stay. 76% of market, employers are see revenue improving
small businesses intend to holding onto the workers in the future. Over half
keep all COVID-19 safety they have. Most small (57%) of small businesses
precautions in place until businesses anticipate anticipate their revenue
the coronavirus pandemic retaining the same staffing increasing this year, up
ends. level (52% say they will 10 percentage points
do so this quarter versus compared to last quarter,
49 percent in Q1 2021). marking the most positive
Thirty-two percent plan outlook of this metric
to increase staffing (same during the pandemic.
as Q1) and around one in
ten (11%) plan to decrease
staffing over the next year.
This quarter, the SBI score is 60.0 (an increase of 4.1 points from 55.9 in Q1). Nevertheless, the new score
remains below findings before the pandemic: the Index score was 71.7 in Q1 of 2020 based on data collected
before the full economic impact of the coronavirus became apparent. The Index reached an all-time low of
39.5 in Q2 2020 and the Index is now up a substantial 20.5 points since then.
SOUTH CHINA BUSINESS JOURNAL 16
