Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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b. ASSISTANCE TO SMALL BUSINESSES Background The pandemic has severely impacted many businesses, with small businesses hit especially hard. Small businesses make up nearly half of U.S. private -sector employment205 and play a key role in supporting the overall economic recovery as they are responsible for two-thirds of net new jobs.206 Since the beginning of the pandemic, however, 400,000 small businesses have closed, with many more at risk.207 Sectors with a large share of small business employment have been among those with the most drastic drops in employment.208 The negative outlook for small businesses has continued: as of November 2021, approximately 66 percent of small businesses reported that the pandemic has had a moderate or large negative effect on their business, and over a third expect that it will take over 6 months for their business to return to their normal level of operations.209 This negative outlook is likely the result of many small businesses having faced periods of closure and having seen declining revenues as customers stayed home.210 In general, small 205 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Monetary Policy Report (June 12, 2020), https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/ 2020-06-mpr-summary.htm. 2°6 U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, Small Businesses Generate 44 Percent of U.S. Economic Activity (Jan. 30, 2019), https://advocacy.sba.gov/2019/01/30/small-businesses-generate-44-percent-of-u- s-economic-activity/. 207 Joseph R. Biden, Remarks by President Biden on Helping Small Businesses (Feb. 22, 2021), https:// www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speechesremarks/2021 /02/22/remarks-by-president-bidenon-helping-small- businesses/. 208 Daniel Wilmoth, U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Small Businesses, Issue Brief No. 16 (Mar. 2021), available at https://cdn.advocacy.sba.gov/wp- content/uploads/2021 /03/02112318/COVID-19-Impact-On-Small-Business.pdf. 2°9 U.S. Census Bureau, Small Business Pulse Survey, https://portal.census.gov/pulse/data/ (last visited December 7, 2021). 21° Olivia S. Kim et al., Revenue Collapses and the Consumption of Small Business Owners in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Nov. 2020), https://www.nber.org/papers/w28151. 142