Michael R. Strain, Columnist

What Explains the Resilience of Small Business?

Indicators have been looking up. That means Congress has to stay on the case.

June 15, 2020 at 8:18 PM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

A lot of pain, but some gain.
Photographer: Mark Makela/Getty Images North America

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

One of the biggest surprises so far in the Pandemic Recession is that American small businesses are doing better than expected.

Take the evidence from the latest Small Business Pulse Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, released on Thursday. The data show that businesses with fewer than 500 employees are seeing rapid improvement. The survey asks small businesses if in the last week they have had a change in their number of paid employees. On April 26, only 4.2% were expanding payrolls, while over one-quarter were shrinking them. By May 31, the curves were getting close to crossing — nearly 10% of businesses were expanding their workforces, and 13% were reducing them.